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diff --git a/24683.txt b/24683.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..679619f --- /dev/null +++ b/24683.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7095 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach, by Annie Roe Carr + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach + Or Strange Adventures Among The Orange Groves + +Author: Annie Roe Carr + +Release Date: February 25, 2008 [EBook #24683] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NAN SHERWOOD AT PALM BEACH *** + + + + +Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + NAN SHERWOOD + AT + PALM BEACH + + OR + + STRANGE ADVENTURES AMONG + THE ORANGE GROVES + + BY + + ANNIE ROE CARR + + Author of "Nan Sherwood at Pine Camp," "Nan + Sherwood's Winter Holidays," "Nan Sherwood + at Rose Ranch," etc. + + _ILLUSTRATED_ + + NEW YORK + GEORGE SULLY & COMPANY + PUBLISHERS + + + + + BOOKS FOR GIRLS + + BY + ANNIE ROE CARR + + THE NAN SHERWOOD SERIES + + NAN SHERWOOD AT PINE CAMP + Or The Old Lumberman's Secret + NAN SHERWOOD AT LAKEVIEW HALL + Or The Mystery of the Haunted Boathouse + NAN SHERWOOD'S WINTER HOLIDAYS + Or Rescuing the Runaways + NAN SHERWOOD AT ROSE RANCH + Or The Old Mexican's Treasure + NAN SHERWOOD AT PALM BEACH + Or Strange Adventures Among the Orange Groves + + GEORGE SULLY & COMPANY + NEW YORK + + COPYRIGHT 1921, BY + GEORGE SULLY & COMPANY + + _Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach_ + + _Printed in the U. S. A._ + + +[Illustration: The music carried them far away on golden wings of +melody. (_See page 190_)] + + + + + CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. THE CRASH ON THE HILL 1 + II. NEARLY A TRAGEDY 13 + III. THE OLD LADY 20 + IV. SOLVING A PROBLEM 27 + V. CALLED TO ACCOUNT 34 + VI. A GLORIOUS PROSPECT 41 + VII. IN THE DORMITORY 47 + VIII. ON THE ROAD 55 + IX. THE JOY OF GIVING 62 + X. A MIDNIGHT FEAST 69 + XI. A DANGEROUS PLOT 76 + XII. ALMOST A DISASTER 85 + XIII. THE WILY STRANGER 94 + XIV. GREAT EXPECTATIONS 104 + XV. WE'RE OFF! 114 + XVI. FUN AND NONSENSE 123 + XVII. THE MYSTERIOUS MEN 131 + XVIII. A STARTLING REVELATION 138 + XIX. AN ATTEMPTED THEFT 147 + XX. THOSE MEN AGAIN 156 + XXI. THE BEGINNING OF ROMANCE 165 + XXII. PALM BEACH AT LAST 173 + XXIII. A TROPICAL PARADISE 181 + XXIV. NAN IS FRIGHTENED 188 + XXV. MOONLIGHT 198 + XXVI. WORTH A FORTUNE 208 + XXVII. WALTER TO THE RESCUE 217 + XXVIII. CAUGHT 228 + XXIX. "WHEN THE SPIRIT MOVES" 237 + + + + + ILLUSTRATIONS + + + The music carried them far away on the golden wings of melody + (Page 190) _Frontispiece_ + + FACING PAGE + + The three girls bent eagerly over Mrs. Bragley as she opened one + paper after another 66 + Nan's eyes were following the figures of two men strolling down + the deck 140 + He pushed Nan from him with such force that she stumbled and + fell 216 + + + + + NAN SHERWOOD + AT PALM BEACH + + + + + CHAPTER I + + THE CRASH ON THE HILL + + +"Smooth as glass!" ejaculated Nan Sherwood, as she came in sight of +Pendragon Hill and noted the gleaming stretch of snow and ice that ran +down to the very edge of Lake Huron. + +"And you're the girl that said coasting time would never, _never_ come," +laughed her chum, Bess Harley, who was walking beside her with her hand +on a rope attached to a bobsled that four girls were drawing. + +"Never is a long word," admitted Nan. "I didn't quite mean that; but the +weather's been so mild up to now that I was getting desperate." + +"Nan registering desperation," put in Laura Polk, she of the red hair +and irrepressible spirits. + +Laura struck an attitude of mock desperation, but the effect was marred +when her foot slipped and she went down with a thump. + +Her laughing mates helped her to her feet and brushed the snow off her +dress. + +"The wicked stand on slippery places," quoted Grace Mason mischievously. + +"Yes," Laura came back, as quick as a flash, "I see that they do, but I +can't." + +The shout of laughter that followed atoned somewhat for her loss of +dignity--although she had not lost much, for Laura and dignity were +hardly on speaking terms. + +Laughing and chattering, all trying to talk at once and all succeeding, +the bevy of light-hearted girls reached the top of the hill. + +Before them stretched Lake Huron, extending farther than their eyes +could see. For a long distance out from shore the lake seemed frozen +solid. A small island rose above the ice about half a mile distant, and +this was the limit fixed upon for the coasters. The cove between the +foot of the hill and the island had a glassy coating of ice that had +been swept and scraped and served for skating as well as coasting. + +"I wonder if it's perfectly safe," remarked Grace Mason, a little +timidly. "You know this is the first time the cove's been frozen this +winter, and we haven't tried it yet." + +"Bless your little heart, you'll be as safe as if you were on a +battlefield," was the dubious comfort that Laura held out. + +"Much safer than that," interposed Professor Krenner, the teacher of +mathematics and architectural drawing at the Lakeview Hall school that +the girls were attending. "You can be sure that neither Dr. Prescott nor +I would take any chances on that score. A heavy logging team went over +it yesterday, and the ice didn't even creak, let alone crack. And every +day that passes of this kind of weather makes it thicker and stronger." + +"My, but that's a comfort," remarked Laura. "I'd hate to have this young +life of mine cut off just when it's so full of promise." + +"How Laura hates herself," put in Bess Harley. + +"You're perfectly safe, Laura," Nan assured her. "Only the good die +young, you know." + +The professor's kindly eyes twinkled as he looked from one to the other +of the rosy-cheeked, sparkling-eyed girls, bubbling over with fun and +vitality. He had just come up from the queer little cabin in which he +lived at the edge of the lake. It was part of his work to supervise the +coasting and, as far as possible, keep it free from accident. + +About his sole diversion was playing on a key bugle, and the +long-drawn-out notes of the instrument, sometimes lively and sometimes +in a minor strain, were familiar sounds to the girls, and often an +occasion of jesting. + +Professor Krenner held the bugle in his hand now, and after glancing at +his watch, he raised the instrument to his lips and blew a clear call +that had the effect of hastening the steps of some of the groups that +were coming toward the hill from the Hall, the roof of which could be +seen over the tops of the trees. + +Outdoor sports were made much of at Lakeview Hall, not only in the +catalogue designed for the perusal of parents, but in actual fact. "A +sound mind in a sound body" was Dr. Beulah Prescott's aim for her +pupils, and exercise was as obligatory as lessons. None was excused +without an adequate reason, and the group upon the hill grew in numbers +until it seemed as though all the members of the school were present +except the smaller girls, who had a slide of their own. + +"All here except the queen," remarked Laura, as she looked around her. + +"The queen?" repeated Bess Harley, staring at her. + +"Queen Linda of Chicago," explained Laura, with a wicked twinkle in her +eye. + +"For goodness' sake, don't ever let Linda Riggs hear you say anything +like that, Laura Polk," admonished Bess. "She's so conceited that she +wouldn't know it was sarcasm. She'd think it was a tribute drawn from an +unwilling admirer." + +"I know," laughed Laura. "It doesn't take much to set her up. If she had +water on the brain, she'd think she was the whole ocean." + +"Here she comes now," remarked Nan, after the laughter caused by Laura's +sally had subsided. + +A tall girl, wearing expensive furs and having a supercilious air, came +along with two or three companions. It was noticeable that she left to +them the work of drawing the bobsled, while she sauntered along, +ostentatiously adjusting her furs as though she sought to call attention +to their quality. + +"Hurry up, Linda," called out Laura. "I believe you'd be late at your +own funeral." + +"I never get anywhere early," snapped Linda. "It isn't good form. When I +go to the theater I always get in late. I always have the best seat that +money can buy reserved for me, so what's the use of hurrying? Of course +it's different when one has to go early and scramble for a seat." + +"That may be your habit in Chicago, but it isn't in favor here, Miss +Riggs," said Professor Krenner dryly. "But now that all seem to be here, +we'll start the races. You understand that all sleds are to keep three +minutes apart so as to avoid accident. The course is straight out on the +lake, and the best two out of three trials win the race. Miss Sherwood, +since you are nearest the starting line, suppose you get your sled in +position to lead off. Not so fast, Miss Riggs," he went on, as Linda +tried to shove her sled to the crest of the hill. "I said Miss Sherwood +was to go first." + +"I don't see why I should have to wait," pouted Linda, as she +reluctantly drew back her sled before the decided look in the +professor's eye. "Hateful old thing," she remarked in a low voice to her +special friend and intimate, Cora Courtney. "He favors Sherwood because +she attends his poky old lectures on architectural drawing and pretends +she likes them." + +"I shouldn't be surprised if that were just it," replied Cora, who made +a habit of agreeing with the rich friend whose friendship often proved +profitable to Cora. She had no money herself but clung closely to those +who had. + +"Who was it," asked Rhoda Hammond in an amused whisper of Nan, "who +wrote an essay once on the 'gentle art of making enemies'?" + +"I'm not sure," laughed Nan in reply, "but I think it was Whistler. Why +do you ask?" + +"Because," replied Rhoda in the same low voice, "I think he must have +had Linda or somebody just like her in mind, for she has the art down to +perfection." + +There would have been little dissent from Rhoda's verdict, for Linda had +few real friends among the girls of Lakeview Hall. She was purse-proud +and vulgar, and, though her money gave her a certain prestige among the +shallow and unthinking, she lacked the qualities of mind and heart to +endear herself to any one. + +By this time the girls who were going with Nan had taken their places +on the sled. It was a new one that Nan had received as a present from +her father, and it had not yet been tested. Nan had named it the _Silver +Arrow_, and she had high hopes that its speed would justify the name. + +Nan sat at the head, with the steering wheel in her hands. The wind had +brought the roses to her cheeks, and her clear eyes shone like stars. +Behind her in order sat Bess Harley, Rhoda Hammond, Grace Mason and +Laura Polk, each girl holding tightly to the belt of the girl in front. + +"All ready?" asked the professor. + +"All ready, Professor," was Nan's reply, as her hands tightened on the +wheel. + +Professor Krenner lifted the bugle to his lips and gave a clear, +sonorous blast that served at the same time as a signal for starting and +as a warning to any one who might be crossing the path at the foot of +the hill. + +Then he tipped the sled over the ridge of the hill and it started on its +journey. + +For a mere fraction of a second it seemed to poise itself for flight. +Then it moved, slowly at first, but gathering speed with every second, +until it seemed to be flying like an arrow from the bow. + +There were delighted and at the same time somewhat fearful squeals from +the girls, as the wind whistled past their ears while the sled flew on +at a speed that quickly reached a mile a minute. They held on to each +other for dear life, but Nan had no eyes or thought for anything except +that shining ribbon of path. + +She made the turn at the foot of the hill, the sled yielding to her +slightest touch, and she only breathed freely when it shot out on the +lake and there were no further obstacles to circumvent or fear. + +On, on it went like a thing of life, as though it would never tire, and +Nan's heart beat fast as she realized that she was going to make a +better mark than she had ever done before. + +But gradually the weight on the level surface began to tell, and the +bobsled slowed up as though it were as reluctant as its passengers to +find itself at its journey's end. + +There was a chorus of joyous exclamations from the girls, as they rose +to their feet and noted how far out they were on the lake. + +"What a perfectly lovely sled!" exclaimed Rhoda Hammond. "I never had +such a ride as that in my life." + +"You darling!" said Nan impulsively, as she patted the wheel of her +treasure. + +"The other girls will have to go some to come anywhere near that mark," +bubbled Bess. + +"Linda will be green with jealousy," laughed Laura. "She thinks that +that _Gay Girl_ of hers is the fastest thing that ever wore runners." + +"She'll take it as a personal affront if she doesn't win," giggled +Grace. "I wish she'd come along while we're here. I'd like to see just +how far we've beaten her." + +"We haven't beaten her yet," observed Nan, "and perhaps it's just as +well not to be too sure. But now let's get our skates on and pull the +sled back. There are to be three trials, you know." + +They took their skates from their shoulders and adjusted them with +nimble fingers. It was the work of only a few moments. Then they rose, +patted down their dresses and struck out for the shore, drawing the sled +behind them. + +They had to keep a wary lookout for the other sleds. One came rushing +along with its laughing crew, but they could see at a glance that it was +not making the speed that their own had reached. Just as they reached +the edge of the lake, another sled flew past, and amid the bevy of girls +on it they discerned Linda Riggs. + +"There goes the _Gay Girl_," remarked Rhoda Hammond. + +"And she's going like the wind, too," chimed in Bess a little anxiously. +"Let's wait here a moment, girls. I want to see how far out she goes." + +"I do hope she won't beat our mark," said Grace, as she snuggled her fur +more closely about her neck. + +They watched with straining eyes as Linda's sled gradually slowed up, +and a sigh of relief came from all when they saw that it stopped about +a hundred feet this side of the spot that they had reached. + +"She didn't beat us!" cried Bess exultantly. + +"Too close to be comfortable, though," murmured Nan, as her eyes +measured the distance. + +"Well, a miss is as good as a mile," declared Rhoda. + +"We're all right so far, as the man said as he was passing the second +floor after falling seventeen stories," put in Laura. + +"Let's get every ounce out of the _Silver Arrow_ on the next try," +adjured Grace, as, after having taken off their skates, they were +trudging up the hill. + +By the time they reached the top, most of the other sleds had been sent +off and they had not long to wait. They settled themselves firmly in +their seats. + +"Let's clinch it now," laughed Nan, as she took the wheel. "Just put on +your wishing caps and wish as hard as you can, and the _Silver Arrow_ +will do the rest." + +"I'm wishing so hard that it hurts," gurgled Bess. + +"If wishing will do it, we've won already," chimed in Laura. "We're all +ready, Professor." + +A clear call from the bugle, a helping hand over the ridge, and the +_Silver Arrow_ was off again. + +It may have been due to the more slippery condition of the hill caused +by the sleds that had already passed over it, but there was no doubt in +the minds of the girls that the bobsled was going even more swiftly than +it had at first. They were almost frightened at the speed it developed, +and yet they were delighted, for they had set their minds on beating +their earlier mark. + +Halfway down the hill they passed Linda and her group, who had drawn up +at one side to let them pass. Even at that breakneck rate of speed they +could see the sneer on Linda's lips as she recognized the sled and its +crew. + +But they were nearing the curve now and Nan's eyes were fastened on the +path ahead while she tightly gripped the wheel. + +"Hold fast, girls!" she warned, as they neared the bend in the road and +the sled swerved at her touch. + +The next instant they rounded the curve, and a cry of horror burst from +their lips. + +Directly in their path was an elderly woman who had just started across +the road. + +She looked up as she heard them scream. Terror and bewilderment came +into her face. She started back, then forward. Then, utterly paralyzed +with fright, she stood helpless in the path of the bobsled that was +rushing toward her with the speed of an express train. + +The girls shouted at her, but her brain, numbed by fear, refused to act. + +"Oh, she'll be killed!" wailed Grace. + +"Oh, Nan, can't you do something?" cried Bess frantically. + +Nan's brain was working like lightning. She was white to the lips, but +never for an instant did she lose her presence of mind. + +At the left of the road was an almost solid row of trees. It was certain +death to turn that way. At the right there was an opening that led into +a little glade. She determined to steer into that. + +She swerved the sled in that direction. She could have made it if the +woman had remained where she was. But just then she backed a step to the +right. The sled struck her and hurled her aside, and she went down with +a scream. + + + + + CHAPTER II + + NEARLY A TRAGEDY + + +The collision changed the direction of the bobsled, and by the merest +fraction it escaped striking a tree. Nan, however, despite her mental +anguish, kept her head and dexterously guided it into the glade, where +it found soft snow and gradually came to a stop. + +Then the frightened girls rose and rushed as fast as they could toward +the victim of the accident, who was lying still in a heap of snow at the +side of the road. + +Nan dropped on the snow beside her and took her head in her arms, while +Rhoda put her hand on the woman's heart. + +"Oh," sobbed Grace, "we've killed her!" + +"No, we haven't," replied Rhoda. "I can feel that her heart is beating. +She's fainted, either from pain or fright or both, poor thing. We must +help her." + +"Here, Bess," directed Nan, "you hold her head while I see if any bones +are broken. And you other girls take turns in chafing her hands. If she +lives near here we'll take her home and send for a doctor. If not, +we'll take her up to the Hall." + +The others followed Nan's directions and worked with frantic energy. And +while the girls are trying to revive the unconscious stranger, it may be +well for the sake of those who have not yet read the earlier volumes of +this series to tell who Nan Sherwood is, and what experiences and +adventures she and her friends have had up to the time at which the +present story opens. + +Mr. Sherwood was a foreman in the Atwater Mills in Tillbury, and "Papa +Sherwood" and "Momsey" and Nan were a devoted and happy family in their +pretty little cottage on Amity Street. Then the mills shut down for an +indefinite length of time. The Sherwoods, with others even less well +able to face the future, were staring poverty and the loss of their +pretty home in the face, when suddenly, in the case of the Sherwoods, +fortune took a hand and sent relief in the shape of a legacy from a +distant relative of Mrs. Sherwood's. + +To settle the business in connection with this legacy, Mr. and Mrs. +Sherwood were called to Scotland. To the grief of all three, it was +necessary that Nan should be left behind, but it was arranged that she +should stay with her Uncle Henry, her father's brother, in a lumber camp +in the Michigan Peninsula. What exciting adventures Nan had there and +what she accomplished for good, can be found in the first volume of +this series, entitled: "Nan Sherwood at Pine Camp; or, The Old +Lumberman's Secret." + +Nan's best girl friend in Tillbury was Bess Harley. Bess was looking +forward to going to school at Lakeview Hall, and, never having known any +lack of money, could not understand why Nan would not say that she, too, +would go. When the loss of Mr. Sherwood's position made even Bess see +that it would be out of the question for Nan to go, she was +inconsolable, for she was devoted to her friend, and rather dependent on +her. + +Nan Sherwood herself wanted to go to Lakeview Hall more than she had +told either Bess or her parents, and when the legacy from Scotland made +this possible the two girls were delighted and went wild with joy. + +What they did at the Hall, the plucky spirit Nan showed on more than one +occasion, and the friends they made are told of in the volume entitled: +"Nan Sherwood at Lakeview Hall; or, The Mystery of the Haunted +Boathouse." + +Among the girls Nan and Bess met at Lakeview Hall was Grace Mason of +Chicago. In "Nan Sherwood's Winter Holidays; or, Rescuing the Runaways" +is described the visit that Nan and Bess made to the Mason home during +the midwinter holidays. It is a record of parties and girlish fun, but +in the midst of this Nan succeeded in helping two foolish girls who had +run far away from home. + +On the opening of Lakeview Hall after those winter holidays a new girl +came to the school. She was from the far West, and she did not at first +understand or enter into the fun of the other girls. For a while she was +without friends there, but gradually Nan Sherwood's sympathy and tact +worked a change and Rhoda Hammond became one with the other girls. + +She was not only grateful to Nan, but she became very fond of her. By +this time Mr. Sherwood was well established in a business of his own, so +when Rhoda asked Nan and Bess and Grace Mason and her brother Walter to +go with her to her home in the West on a ranch, Nan, as well as the +others, was able to accept. What exciting adventures the young people +had at Rose Ranch, how staunchly they faced peril on one or two +occasions, and what novel pleasures came to them, are all told of in +"Nan Sherwood at Rose Ranch; or, The Old Mexican's Treasure." + +And now let us go back to Nan and her chums and the poor woman who had +brought the bobsled race to such an inglorious termination. + +The ministrations of the excited girls to the poor woman soon produced +an effect. The woman stirred uneasily, groaned, and at length opened her +eyes, to the infinite relief of the girls, who had feared they had been +participants in a tragedy. + +Nan's deft fingers had in the meantime established the fact that no +bones were broken, and she now spoke gently to the woman, whose eyes +wandered from one face to another in a dazed fashion. + +"I hope you are not badly hurt," Nan said kindly. "Do you feel much +pain?" + +"What am I doing here?" the woman asked. "What has happened?" + +"Our sled struck you and knocked you down," answered Nan. "We did our +best to steer out of the way, but we couldn't. I hope you are not much +hurt." + +A spasm of fear came into the face, which they could see was that of a +woman about sixty years old. + +"Oh, yes, I remember now," she said weakly. "I thought surely I was +going to be killed. It all happened so sudden like." + +She struggled into a sitting position, and the girls supported her head +and shoulders. + +"Tell us where you live," said Nan, "and we will take you home and send +for a doctor. Or perhaps we had better take you right up to the school +on top of the hill and take care of you there." + +"Oh, I wouldn't want to give you young ladies so much trouble," answered +the woman. + +"Trouble, indeed!" protested Nan. "It's you that have had all the +trouble, and there's nothing we can do for you that will make up for +it." + +"Do tell us where you live," urged Bess. "You ought to be in bed just as +soon as you can. You'll catch your death out here in the snow." + +"I live down on the Milltown road," the woman replied, "but I think I +can get there without bothering you. Just help me up and you'll find +that I'm able to walk all right." + +She strove to rise to her feet as she spoke, the girls supporting her on +each side, but her feet gave way under her and she would have fallen had +they not sustained her. + +"I'm afraid my ankle is broken," she murmured, as they eased her to a +sitting position on the sled that thoughtful Rhoda had run and brought +up to where the group were gathered. + +"No," said Nan, "it isn't broken, I think; but it is very badly +sprained. Now, girls, wrap her up well and then take hold of the ropes +and we'll get her home just as soon as we possibly can. You live on the +Milltown road, you say?" she went on, turning to the sufferer. "About +how far is your home from here?" + +"About a mile or a little more," was the answer. "It's just beyond the +blacksmith's shop after you cross the bridge." + +"I know where it is," interposed Grace. "I've often passed the place +while out riding with Walter." + +"You can show us the way then," said Nan, setting the example to the +others by taking hold of the rope. "Come along, girls, and we'll get +there as soon as we can. Bess, hadn't you better go up the hill and tell +the professor all about this, and then hurry and catch up with us?" + +Bess did as her chum suggested, and the other girls started off at a +brisk pace, drawing the sled with its burden after them. + + + + + CHAPTER III + + THE OLD LADY + + +The road was rather a difficult one, and several small hills had to be +surmounted. The girls took turns in having one of them walk beside the +sled with her hand steadying their passenger, who at times protested +feebly against all the trouble she was making. She volunteered the +information that her name was Sarah Bragley, that she was a widow, and +that she had no kith or kin in the world as far as she knew. These facts +redoubled the pity of the girls, and they mentally resolved that as long +as they were at Lakeview Hall they would do all they could to make life +more bearable for the frail and forlorn woman who had been brought into +their lives in a way so unexpected and so nearly tragic. + +In a little while Bess rejoined them, panting a little from the +exertions she had made to catch up to them. + +"It's all right," she announced. "I told Professor Krenner, and he told +us to do all that we could, no matter how long it took, and said that he +would explain the whole thing to Dr. Prescott. And Linda Riggs was +there, and what do you think she said? But I'll tell you about that some +other time," she said, as she saw a spasm of pain come over the injured +woman's face. "Here, let me get hold of that rope and we'll get on +faster." + +She took hold with a will, and the bobsled moved along rapidly until a +little bridge that spanned the road over a small stream came into view. +The stream now was a solid mass of ice. + +"There's the bridge!" ejaculated Grace. "We can't be very far from the +house now." + +"And there's the blacksmith shop and a little house right beyond it," +added Nan. "Is that your house?" she asked Mrs. Bragley, beside whom she +was walking. + +"That's it, dearie," was the answer. "It ain't much of a place," she +added apologetically. + +"It's a cunning little darling of a place," protested Rhoda, not quite +truthfully, but so warm-heartedly that the recording angel probably did +not lay it up against her. + +"It's very nice," added Nan. + +In a few minutes more they were before the tiny house, which seemed to +consist of several rooms on one floor and a single room above. +Everything about it suggested straitened means, and yet the girls +noticed that the small windows were clean and hung with fresh dimity +curtains, and that there were little flower boxes on the sills inside. + +They drew the sled through the gate and up the path to the door. + +"Have you the key?" Nan asked, as she took off her gloves. + +"It isn't locked," Mrs. Bragley replied, with a faint smile. "There's +nothing in there that would tempt anybody to steal. Just open the door +and go right in." + +Nan did as she was told. She found herself in what evidently served as a +living-room and dining-room and kitchen combined. In a little room +opening off to the right, she caught a glimpse of a bed. There was a +wood stove with the embers of a fire in it, and the room was still +fairly warm. Everything was as scrupulously neat as her first impression +from without had led her to expect. But the scanty and worn furniture +showed a desperate struggle with poverty that touched the girl's heart. + +Under Nan's directions, the girls lifted Mrs. Bragley from the sled and +gently deposited her in the one rocking chair that the apartment +contained, first, however, placing a cushion in it to make it more +comfortable. + +"Now, girls," said Nan, "let's all get busy. In the first place, we want +to get this fire going. Where do you keep your wood?" she asked, turning +to the invalid. + +"There's plenty of it in the little woodshed at the back," was the +answer. "The neighbors always cut enough for me to last me through the +winter. But it's a shame that you should have to go for it," she called +after Nan, who had already started for the woodshed. + +Her protests were unheeded, and in a moment Nan was back, accompanied by +Bess, who had gone with her, their arms full of wood which they laid +beside the stove. + +In a few minutes a cheerful fire was roaring in the stove. Then, +following the directions of Mrs. Bragley, they found some tea and brewed +it, and set out a little lunch which they pressed the woman to eat. The +food and tea refreshed and revived her, and, as her shyness wore off, +she talked with them freely. + +Nan found some arnica with which she bathed the injured ankle, and then +they helped their patient to undress and get into bed. And having done +this, and seen that she was as comfortable as it was possible to make +her, the girls withdrew into a corner to hold, as Nan expressed it, a +"committee meeting to discuss ways and means." + +"Now, girls, just what are we going to do?" demanded Nan, as her friends +gathered round her with anxious looks on their faces. + +"Take care of this poor woman until she is able to be on her feet +again," responded Bess promptly. "We can't do less." + +"Of course, that goes without saying," agreed Nan. "We're the cause of +her present trouble, and it's up to us to get her out of it. The only +question is as to the best way to do it." + +"Go ahead and tell us, Nan," urged Grace. "You've got the best head of +any of us when it comes to an emergency like this." + +"The first thing," suggested Nan, "is to get a doctor." + +"I'm so glad it isn't an undertaker we have to call for," put in Grace, +with a shudder. + +"And the next," continued Nan, "is to find a nurse. The poor thing is +utterly helpless just now with that hurt ankle. She can't even keep up +the fire, and the weather's so cold she'd freeze to death if the fire +went out." + +"If we only had a telephone," murmured Rhoda, as her eye wandered over +the place, though she knew beforehand that such an instrument would not +be found in that poor cottage. + +"Well, we haven't," replied Nan. "So I'll tell you what we'll do. Bess +and I will stay here and try to make our patient as comfortable as we +can. The rest of you girls had better go right up to the Hall and tell +Dr. Prescott all about it. She'll have a doctor here in less than no +time, and she or Mrs. Cupp will know of some nurse they can get in the +town. We'll stay here anyway until they come. But the afternoon's going +fast, and you want to hurry as much as you can. It will probably be dark +anyhow when the doctor and the nurse get here, and, as we don't know +the road very well, we don't want to be too late in getting back to the +Hall." + +"You needn't worry about that," said Grace, as she put on her wraps. +"I'll 'phone to Walter as soon as I get to the Hall and he'll come over +and take you home." + +"In that case I'd better go along with you now," put in Bess, with a +mischievous twinkle in her eye. "I'm afraid it will be a case where two +is company and three's a crowd." + +"Don't talk such nonsense," said Nan, though a slight flush had risen to +her cheeks at her chum's raillery. "But, girls, before you go there's +one other thing; and that is, the matter of money. I don't suppose," she +went on, lowering her voice lest the invalid should hear, "that the poor +woman has anything of any account. How much money have you girls with +you?" + +What the warm-hearted girls had with them at the moment was very little, +but what it was they all handed over, and the total amounted to several +dollars. + +"Of course we'll all club together and see that she has all she needs to +get through this trouble," declared Laura, and there was a unanimous +chorus of assent. + +"And now, shoo!" commanded Nan, as she opened the door to hasten their +exit. "And see how quickly you can get the nurse and the doctor here. +Don't bother about the sled. We'll bring that along when we come, or +send over after it to-morrow." + +The three girls promised to hurry, and made off. Nan and Bess watched +them until they had passed out of sight beyond the bridge, and then +turned to look after their patient. + + + + + CHAPTER IV + + SOLVING A PROBLEM + + +The girls tiptoed into the little room at the right and saw that Mrs. +Bragley was not asleep. As they approached the bed she greeted them with +a faint smile. + +"It's too bad that you should have all this trouble," she said. "Here +I've gone and spoiled all your afternoon's fun just because I was too +slow and stupid to get out of your way." + +"It wasn't your fault at all," declared Bess warmly. "I know I'd have +been scared stiff if I'd seen that sled bearing down upon me. The thing +we're grateful for is that you weren't killed." + +"How are you feeling now?" asked Nan gently, as she adjusted the +bedclothes. + +"Rather poorly," was the answer. "My ankle's hurting me a good deal. And +then I have a sort of all-gone feeling. But I suppose that's on account +of the shock. But I'll be all right by to-morrow," the woman hurried to +say bravely. + +"We've sent for a doctor and a nurse," Nan explained. "They'll be here +in a little while." + +A worried look came into the woman's pale and drawn face. + +"A doctor? A nurse?" she repeated. "That's good of you, my dears, but I +can get along all right without them. And besides, besides----" + +She hesitated, and Nan, who guessed what she was thinking of, hastened +to reassure her. + +"Don't worry about anything," she urged. "There won't be any expense. +It's our fault that you are hurt, and the very least we can do is to see +that it doesn't cost you anything to get well. You just leave it to us, +please." + +Tears came into the poor woman's eyes. + +"How good you are!" she said brokenly. "There was a time when I had +money enough to get along comfortably, but that was before my husband +died. He thought that he was leaving me enough to take care of me for +the rest of my life. But somehow or other I guess I've been cheated out +of it or lost it somehow. It's all mixed up in my mind, and I don't +exactly know the rights of it. I never did have any head for business, +anyhow." + +"There, there," said Nan soothingly, as she feared that her patient was +getting excited. "You can tell us all about it some other time. Let me +fix your pillows now and you try to get some sleep before the doctor +comes." + +She brought a cooling drink, and then she and Bess withdrew into the +other room and conversed in low tones until, just before dark, the +doctor made his appearance. + +He was a big, cheery man, who radiated confidence as he bustled into the +room after tying his horse to the fence outside. + +"Oh, Dr. Willis, I'm so glad you've come!" exclaimed Nan, as the doctor +came in and drew off his gloves. + +"Just a bit of luck that I was able to get here so soon," the doctor +responded. "I was just going out on another call when a girl rang me up +from the school and told me of the accident. She was so excited that she +stuttered, but I managed to make out what she was driving at and hurried +over at once. Where is the patient?" + +They took him into the room, and he made a quick but thorough +examination. + +"No bones broken," he announced, and the girls drew a sigh of relief. +"But there's a bad sprain and she won't be able to get around for a +couple of weeks." + +He bandaged the injured ankle and prepared some medicine, which he left +with careful directions to the girls. + +"I'll drop in again to-morrow," he said. "Sorry that I can't take you +girls back and drop you at the Hall, but she oughtn't to be left alone. +I can take one of you, though," and he looked inquiringly from one to +the other. + +"You had better go, Bess," said Nan promptly. + +"What! and leave you alone?" cried Bess. "Indeed not." + +"But we can't both go." + +"I am not going to leave you, Nan. We'll both stay." + +"Well, it won't be for so very long anyway," remarked Nan. She turned to +the physician. "It is very good of you to ask us." + +"It sure is," added Bess, quickly. And then she added, with a cloud on +her face, "You are sure Mrs. Bragley is going to get over it?" + +"Oh, yes, she'll get over it. But it will take time," answered the +doctor; and a few minutes later the medical man took his departure. + +"He certainly is a nice man," said Nan, as she and her chum watched him +go. + +"A man one is bound to have confidence in," added Bess. + +He had not been gone five minutes when there was a sound of sleighbells, +and a cutter, drawn by a spirited horse, dashed up to the gate. The +girls peered through the windows, but in the dark, which had now fully +settled down, could not identify the newcomer. A moment later there as a +knock at the door, and, on opening it, Walter Mason came in with a rush, +accompanied more sedately by an elderly woman with a kindly, capable +face. + +"Why, Walter!" exclaimed Nan, and a close observer might have noted her +heightened color. "How splendid it was of you to get here so quickly." + +Bess had it on the tip of her tongue to say that she could guess why he +had hurried, but she wisely forebore. + +Walter Mason was a frank, fine-looking young man, with whom the girls +had become acquainted through his sister Grace. Nan and he had been +thrown much together, especially during the visit that Nan had made to +Grace at the Mason home in Chicago, and a mutual liking had developed +that had grown stronger with time. The girls had often teased Nan about +Walter, but she had parried their thrusts good-naturedly, and stoutly +maintained that Walter was simply a nice boy and good company. But she +was undeniably glad to see him, though she tried to explain to herself +that it was the prospect of soon getting back to the Hall that pleased +her. + +After the first greeting, Walter introduced his companion as a Mrs. +Ellis, who had agreed to come along to nurse the patient until she had +fully recovered. + +Mrs. Ellis, in a quiet, capable way, took charge at once, and the girls +felt the load of responsibility that they had carried all the afternoon +lighten promptly. + +"Oh, I'd nearly forgotten!" Walter exclaimed suddenly, and ran out to +the sleigh, whence he returned in a moment loaded down with food and +jellies and supplies of various kinds. + +"We stopped on our way through the village," he explained, as he placed +the packages on the table, "and Mrs. Ellis picked out the things that we +ought to bring along. Here they are. And now if you girls will get your +things on, I'll hustle you over to the Hall. You must be awfully +hungry." + +They had not thought of that, but now that he spoke of it they realized +that he was right. They went in and spoke cheerily to Mrs. Bragley, +promising to be over the next day to see how she was getting along, and +then, followed by her tears and blessings, they put on their wraps and +furs and with a cordial farewell to the nurse they hurried off, not, +however, until Walter had brought in and stacked up enough firewood to +last for several days. + +The cold, crisp air was like a tonic, and their spirits rose as the +horse drew the cutter after him over the snowy road at a rate of speed +that promised to bring them to the Hall all too soon. + +"That was a close call you girls had this afternoon," Walter remarked, +as they left the little house behind them. + +"It surely was," agreed Bess, with a little shiver that was not due to +the cold. "It was lucky for us that Nan kept her head. The rest of us +were screaming, but Nan didn't make a sound. If she'd steered an inch to +the right or to the left from what she did, we'd have gone into a tree, +and that would have been the end of us." + +"She's a thoroughbred," declared Walter briefly. "That's just the way +she acted the day your boat upset. Nan certainly has nerve." + +"There are the lights of the Hall," interrupted Nan, glad of an excuse +to divert attention from herself. "How beautiful they look on a night +like this." + +"They'd look a good deal more beautiful to me if they were further off," +grumbled Walter, as he reluctantly turned into the drive that led to +Lakeview Hall. + + + + + CHAPTER V + + CALLED TO ACCOUNT + + +The cutter drew up with a flourish and a jingle of bells at the main +door of Lakeview Hall, and Walter Mason helped the girls out. + +"So good of you to bring us over," said Nan, as Walter's hand held hers +for perhaps a second more than was absolutely necessary. + +"Tickled to death to have the chance," replied the youth. "And say, Nan, +count me in on that subscription for Mrs. Bragley." + +"Thanks just as much," was Nan's response, as she and Bess ran up the +steps, "but I imagine you've done more than your share already. Who paid +for all those good things you brought over in your sleigh? Answer me +that." + +"Give you three guesses," laughed Walter. "And now, good night, girls. +Tell me when you're going over again and I'll be here with the cutter." + +Another moment and he was off with a farewell wave of the hand, and Nan +and Bess entered the Hall, where they speedily found themselves the +center of a chattering bevy of girls, all trying to talk at once. + +"Tell us all about it, Nan," pleaded Rhoda Hammond. "Did the doctor get +there?" + +"Was Mrs. Bragley badly hurt?" asked Laura. + +"Not seriously," answered Nan. "The doctor and the nurse both came, and +everything is going on all right. She'll be able to walk again in a +couple of weeks, they think." + +"Don't tell them another word, Nan Sherwood, until we have had something +to eat," laughed Bess. "I'm just dying from hunger, and I suppose we're +late now for supper." + +Linda Riggs, who had been standing apart with a sneer on her lips, +turned to Cora Courtney and said in a voice that was not so low but all +could hear: + +"So that's why she stayed to nurse the old woman; so she could get a +ride home with Walter Mason. She's foxy, all right." + +"You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Linda Riggs!" Bess Harley cried +hotly. But Nan laid her hand soothingly on her arm. + +"Never mind her, Bess," she counseled with a level glance at Linda. +"What else can you expect? Let's go in to supper." + +"Linda is peeved because the _Gay Girl_ was beaten this afternoon," +laughed Laura Polk. "You know she thought she had a mortgage on the +race." + +"Was she beaten?" asked Bess, with eager interest. "I declare, my +mind's been so full of the accident that I'd almost forgotten that we +had a race." + +"Yes," replied Laura gleefully. "She was beaten by more than a hundred +feet." + +"And she had three chances where we had only one," put in Rhoda. "We +might have beaten our own mark if we had had our full number of trips." + +"There's not much of the sport about Linda," commented Grace. "Any one +who beats her makes her an enemy. She takes it as a personal insult if +any one dares to get ahead of her." + +"She can't be any more of an enemy to us than she always has been," +concluded Bess. "But come along, Nan, and let's eat. My appetite's +keener than ever, now that I know we won." + +"Was there ever anything the matter with your appetite, Bess?" +questioned Nan with a smile. + +"Sometimes--not often. But, oh, Nan! neither of us would have had much +appetite if we had seriously injured that poor woman." + +"You are right there. Every time I think of the narrow escape we had I +have to shiver." + +"Yes, and supposing the sled had gone into a tree, or one of those sharp +rocks! Oh, it would have been dreadful!" + +"We can count ourselves very lucky." + +"And to think we won the race after all! That's the best news I've heard +in a long time." + +"Oh, no, Bess. The best news is our escape, and Mrs. Bragley's, from +serious injury. The race doesn't count alongside of that." + +"Well, maybe you are right. Nevertheless, I am awfully glad we won." + +The rest of the girls had already had their supper, but there was plenty +left, and Nan and Bess did full justice to it. They had scarcely +finished when, a message came to Nan that Dr. Prescott, the head of the +school, wished to see her. + +"I always feel nervous when I hear that Doctor Beulah wants to see me," +remarked Laura, the madcap of the school. "But perhaps Nan has a better +conscience than I usually have. Run along now, Nan, and take your +medicine, and then come back and tell us all about it." + +Nan went at once to the principal's room, and was graciously received by +the serene, handsome woman who directed the activities of Lakeview Hall. + +Dr. Beulah Prescott was a woman of culture and marked executive ability. +For many years she had been the head of the school, and had won for it +an enviable position among institutions of its kind. She had a large and +valuable clientele, which was constantly expanding. + +She was an extremely good-looking woman, and exquisitely groomed and +dressed, although with an utter absence of ostentation. She knew the +value of appearance, especially before the critical eyes of her +schoolgirls, and never allowed herself to be seen at a disadvantage. +Her rule was mild, but just and firm, and all the girls knew that she +was not to be trifled with. Behind her back they often referred to her +as Doctor Beulah, but none permitted herself any familiarity in her +presence. Her poise was perfect. No one had ever seen her angry or +flustered. When she did not inspire ardent affection, she always +commanded the genuine respect of her pupils. + +She greeted Nan pleasantly as the latter entered, and asked her to be +seated. + +"I hear you came near having a serious accident this afternoon, Nan," +she said, "and I have sent for you to have you tell me all about it." + +Nan told in detail the events of the afternoon, and the doctor listened +with keen interest, interrupting once in a while to make some incident +perfectly clear. + +"It was a very narrow escape," she commented, when Nan had finished. "I +am thankful beyond words that none of the girls was hurt or killed, as +they so easily might have been. And I want to congratulate you on the +way you played your part. I notice you left that out of your story, but +others have already told me how cool and clear-headed you were through +it all. I'm glad that you happened to be steering." + +Nan flushed at the words of praise, and murmured rather uncomfortably +that she had done only what any other of the girls would have done in +her place. + +"I differ with you there," replied Dr. Prescott, with a smile. "But we +won't discuss that. What must be done is to make the coasting safer in +the future. After this, I will have some one stationed at that crossing +to warn passers-by. As for that poor woman, I will see that all the +expenses of her illness are paid and that she is compensated besides for +the fright and pain she has undergone." + +"Pardon me, Dr. Prescott," said Nan with some diffidence, "but the girls +feel that they ought to do most of the helping. They have already +contributed a little, and they are planning to do more." + +"A very commendable feeling," agreed the head of the school graciously. +"But at least you will let me help. I know Mrs. Bragley. She is a very +worthy woman." + +"She seems to be," remarked Nan. "Her little house is poor, but +everything about it is neat and clean. I gathered from some things she +said that she used to be in fairly comfortable circumstances." + +"That is true," was the response. "Her husband was a hard-working man +and had saved up some money. But he was inclined to invest his savings +in rather risky enterprises, and I imagine he was swindled out of most +of it. It seems to me that I have heard something of that kind, though I +don't recall it clearly." + +"I would like to go over to the cottage as often as I can in the next +few days to see what I can do to help, if you have no objections," +remarked Nan. + +"None whatever," rejoined Dr. Prescott. "In fact, I shall be very glad +to have you do so, provided, of course, that you don't let it interfere +with your school work. You can go now, Nan. You must be tired after the +strain and excitement of this afternoon, and I would suggest that you go +to bed early." + +Nan bade the principal good-night and hurried up to her room, where she +found a group of her special friends all on the _qui vive_ to learn of +her interview. + + + + + CHAPTER VI + + A GLORIOUS PROSPECT + + +"Hail, the conquering heroine comes!" cried Rhoda Hammond, as Nan +entered the room. + +"I see she didn't eat you up," remarked Bess with a smile. + +"I suppose you are disappointed," laughed Nan, as she threw herself into +a chair. "It would have been delightfully exciting if she had, wouldn't +it? But talking of eating, let me have some of those chocolates, you +stingy thing." + +The last remark was addressed to Laura, who languidly took up the box of +confections and handed it over to Nan. + +"Where's Grace?" asked Nan, as she helped herself and cast her eyes over +the group. + +The question was answered by Grace herself, who at that moment burst +into the room, waving a letter excitedly in her hand. + +"Oh, girls, what do you think?" she exclaimed breathlessly. + +"We never think," drawled Laura. "At least, my teachers tell me that I +never do." + +"Has some distant relative died and left you a fortune?" hazarded Bess. + +"Better than that," cried Grace jubilantly. + +"Can anything be better than that?" queried Laura. + +"Tell us, Grace," adjured Nan. "Don't keep us on the anxious seat." + +"I'm going to Palm Beach!" exclaimed Grace joyously. "Do you hear, +girls? I'm going to Palm Beach for the winter holidays!" + +The girls sprang up at the news and crowded around Grace. + +"Palm Beach!" gasped Rhoda almost breathlessly. + +"Why, Gracie Mason!" exclaimed Nan, "you must be talking in your sleep." + +"You don't really and truly mean Palm Beach, Florida?" cried Laura, +nearly choking on the big chocolate that slipped down her throat at the +astounding news. + +"I really mean Palm Beach, Florida," reiterated Grace, thoroughly +enjoying the sensation she had created. + +"Oh, you lucky, lucky girl!" breathed Bess, who until now had seemed too +stunned by the news to utter a word. + +"Lucky. Well, I should say," chimed in Laura. "Some people are born +lucky, and Grace Mason is the luckiest of them all." + +"How I wish I could go with you!" mourned Rhoda enviously. + +"You can just guess we all wish that," acquiesced Nan. "You surely were +born with a golden spoon in your mouth, Grace." + +"It has been the dream of my life to go to Palm Beach," put in Rhoda. + +"Now, Grace, just sit down here and tell us all about it," commanded +Nan. "Every syllable. Do you hear?" + +She piloted Grace to the biggest chair in the room and seated herself on +one arm of it, while the others clustered around as closely as possible. + +"Well," began Grace, "mother and dad have been thinking about it for +some time, but they wouldn't tell us about it until the last minute +because they wanted to surprise us. Just as soon as I got the news, I +flew right over here to tell you girls about it." + +"It's too splendid!" exclaimed Laura. "Where are you going to stay while +you are there? Or perhaps it's too early to have settled that yet." + +"At the Royal Poinciana," replied Grace happily. "Oh, my!" + +"The Royal Poinciana!" exclaimed all the girls in one breath. + +"Why, Grace," marveled Rhoda. "That's the very swellest hotel even in +Palm Beach." + +"Well, what of that?" smiled Grace. "Can't we go to the swellest hotel +if we want to?--and if dad's cash holds out?" + +"No reason in the world, if you're lucky enough to be able to," was +Rhoda's envious reply. "It costs a small fortune to live there even for +a short time, as I suppose you know." + +"I suppose," chaffed Laura, "that you'll be so stuck up when you get +back that you won't speak to your old friends." + +"No danger of that," laughed Grace, as she looked lovingly about at the +eager faces of her friends. + +"How long are you going to stay?" queried Nan. + +"I don't know yet," answered Grace slowly. "The holidays last for only +two weeks, you know, and mother and dad are so anxious that I shouldn't +lose anything of my school course that they'll probably send me back at +the end of the two weeks, though they may stay a little longer. I only +wish the holidays were four weeks long instead of two." + +"How are you ever coming back after two weeks of that sort of life?" +asked Laura. "If I were only lucky enough once to get there I'd never +want to come back." + +"Just think of what _fun_ you can have there," remarked Bess Harley. "I +suppose you'll play tennis. What joy to be able to play tennis and get +your nose sunburned in the middle of winter. Think of you playing tennis +in Palm Beach sunshine while we are shivering around fires." + +"And golf?" suggested Nan. + +"Not that," laughed Grace. "I don't know a mashie from a cleek." + +"Of course there'll be boating," suggested Bess. + +"And bathing," added Laura with emphasis. "Oh, Grace, I'm just dying of +envy! Think of bathing in January with the water as warm as it is here +in August!" + +"Take care you don't get drowned, Gracie," warned Nan, in mock +seriousness. "And look out for sharks. I hear that they're seen +occasionally at Palm Beach." + +"For goodness' sake, Nan!" cried Laura reprovingly, "don't even suggest +anything unpleasant in connection with that celestial spot. There's +nothing to be found there but pure, unalloyed bliss." + +"Only think of the dances at the hotel!" said Bess, with shining eyes. + +"And the fellows," put in Laura mischievously. "Oh, Grace, Grace, what +opportunities for sitting out dances on those wonderful balconies!" + +"And the long strolls in the moonlight," added Nan, giving Grace a nudge +with her elbow. + +"Or sitting on the beach with some eligible young millionaire, listening +to the waves beating on the sand," teased Rhoda. + +"Oh, it's all too wonderful!" exclaimed Laura, suddenly starting up and +pulling Grace out of the chair. + +Forgetting the lateness of the hour, she started in a mad whirl about +the room. + +"Hush!" cautioned Nan, as a firm footfall was heard in the corridor. + +In a twinkling two motionless forms lay in Nan's bed. Rhoda had switched +off the light, and the high backs of chairs and sofa hid crouching +figures, while the almost too regular breathing of the supposed sleepers +was the only sound to be heard when the door opened and the severe and +angular form of Mrs. Cupp stood outlined in the dim light from the +corridor. + + + + + CHAPTER VII + + IN THE DORMITORY + + +After a survey of several minutes of the dark and seemingly innocent +room, the guardian of school discipline seemed satisfied, closed the +door, and her footsteps died away at the end of the hall. + +If she could have heard the bursts of smothered laughter as the lights +were turned on and Laura and Bess, almost exhausted by their efforts to +keep up that steady breathing, tumbled from the bed and the others rose +from their hiding places and shook and stretched themselves to get the +cramps out of their limbs! + +"That was a close call," gurgled Nan, breathless with suppressed +laughter, while Grace asked chokingly: + +"How did you ever do that sleeping act so perfectly and keep it up so +long?" + +"Just genius," answered Laura complacently. "I got so in the spirit of +it that I came near snoring." + +"Is that so?" scoffed Rhoda. "Strange that we never noticed it before." + +"Live and learn," replied Laura, nonchalantly. "The explanation is +simple. Just lack of perception. 'Ye have eyes and ye see not.'" + +"For pity's sake, keep still, you two," said Bess. "We have too many +things to talk about to listen to repartee, even to such brilliant +specimens." + +"Snubbed!" groaned Laura, as she lifted the last bonbon from the box. + +"Here, greedy," said Rhoda. "I saw that candy first." + +"Well, I ate it first," grinned Laura tantalizingly. + +"Will you girls keep still?" cried Bess despairingly. "I want to find +out what Grace is going to wear." + +"Yes, sweetheart," said Rhoda meekly, as she flopped down into the +nearest seat at hand. "That is really a most interesting and +all-important question, and we will come to that anon. But first I want +to remark that I feel as though we had been nearly caught at a regular +spread." + +"Spread! Where have I heard that word before?" exclaimed Laura +dramatically. "Isn't it time we had a regular one? I tell you what, +girls, let's celebrate by having a real honest-to-goodness spread. +There's a reason." + +"As if you ever needed a reason for having a spread!" laughed Bess. "But +I second the motion." + +"I'm expecting a box from home any minute," said Rhoda, "and I'll donate +it to the cause." + +"I'll furnish the fruit," Grace offered. + +"Dandy!" exclaimed Laura. "Put me down for cocoa and milk and sugar. +Will you supply the sandwiches, Nan?" + +"I'm willing to furnish the sandwiches," agreed Nan, a little +doubtfully. "But do you think we'd better have it just now?" + +"Oh, come on, Nan," urged Laura. "Be a sport. Isn't Grace worth a +chance?" + +And Nan, unwilling to spoil the others' sport, assented, though with +some inward misgiving. + +"Can't we go to town to-morrow after recitations, and get the things?" +Bess proposed. + +"O. K.," acquiesced Laura contentedly. "And now to return to the vital +question. What, Grace darling, are you going to wear at Palm Beach?" + +"I'd like to get new gowns and things," Grace replied; "but it's hard to +get summer clothes in winter. Of course, I've got last summer's things." + +"I'd feel that I was pretty well fitted out already if I had _your_ last +summer's things," observed Laura. + +"I should say as much!" agreed Rhoda. "The idea of Grace Mason needing a +new summer outfit. What's the objection to that lovely crepe de chine +that made me green with envy when you wore it last summer?" + +"Or that voile with the heliotrope flowers?" supplemented Nan. "Or the +white net with the embroidered flounces?" + +"Or that blue taffeta that you looked so stunning in at the garden +party?" said Rhoda. + +"Or the old rose georgette with the touch of black velvet, to say +nothing of half a dozen others?" added Bess. + +"Since you are resurrecting the old gowns so vigorously," laughed Grace, +"I begin to think I may get through without so many new things after +all, especially as the old gowns will be new to the people I shall meet +at Palm Beach. Of course mother will have a dressmaker, and she'll alter +and freshen up and make a few new things. But she can't do such a very +great deal in the little time from now to the holidays. If it was any +other place than Palm Beach, I wouldn't even think about dress. But it's +such a very swell place, you know, girls, and I don't want to feel out +of place while I'm there. Of course you know how I feel." + +"Sure we do," Laura assured her. "But I'll guarantee that with what you +have and what you'll be able to add, you'll feel very much in it, even +at Palm Beach." + +"And now, ladies," said Rhoda, "that the all-important subject of dress +is disposed of, I move that Nan pass around for our refreshment those +fine Florida oranges I see on the table there." + +Nan laughingly complied, and Bess suddenly exclaimed as she peeled the +rind from her orange: + +"This reminds me, Grace. How will it seem to be walking through lovely +orange groves with the beautiful golden fruit showing between the +leaves?" + +"And," Nan supplemented, "to be able to pick and eat the oranges with +the warmth of the sun upon them! I have heard that the flavor is very +different from what we are accustomed to." + +"And imagine," Rhoda added longingly, "not only being able to feast on +the delicious oranges but to have the fragrance of the wonderful +blossoms all around you as you walk through the groves." + +"Oh, girls, girls!" cried Grace, "you make me impatient to be there at +this very minute. There's one thing," she added quizzically, "if no +other orange blossoms ever come my way, I'll at least have had those." + +"No need for you to worry about that," returned Laura, "with that young +Palm Beach millionaire--or is it billionaire?--waiting to greet you and +some day crown that fair brow of thine with fragrant orange blooms. +Methinks I can already smell their fragrance and hear the strains of the +justly celebrated wedding march of Mendelssohn." + +"What vivid imaginations some people have," returned Grace calmly. + +"Oh, dear," sighed Nan musingly, "doesn't it seem a shame that everybody +can't have wonderful things? If only a very small part of the surplus +wealth could be divided among those who are struggling just to live, +what a different world this would be. It doesn't seem right that so +many people should have everything and others have little else than work +and worry. Those people at Palm Beach have wealth, luxury, everything to +make life splendid, while others have so little. Things certainly are +uneven in this world. Take Mrs. Bragley, for instance." + +"I tell you what we'll do, girls," said Grace impulsively. "We'll make a +spread for Mrs. Bragley as well as for ourselves." + +"Fine!" ejaculated Rhoda. "We'll fill a basket with canned meat and some +potatoes and----" + +"No, no," interrupted Grace impulsively, "not those things. Let's give +her a real spread with something out of the ordinary." + +"Jellies," proposed Bess. + +"Glass jars of imported strawberries and cherries," suggested Laura. + +"A great bunch of those wonderful California grapes," contributed Grace. + +"And some Florida oranges," added Nan. + +"Great!" commented Grace. "When shall we do it?" + +"Let's see," mused Nan. "We have our Latin class at two. We'll be +through by three. Let's make it three-thirty o'clock to-morrow." + +"I'm afraid you'll have to go without me," said Grace. "I promised +mother I'd answer her letter right away, so I'll have to get that off +to-morrow." + +"I can't go either," said Laura. "I have those French exercises to make +up before to-morrow night. I'd like to go, but I suppose I can't with +that to do." + +"Then, Bess," said Nan, "you and Rhoda and I will be a committee of +three to wait on Mrs. Bragley to-morrow." + +"Girls, isn't it warm in here?" questioned Laura. + +"Warm? With the heating plant broken down?" queried Nan. + +"It feels warm and I'm going to open a window," went on Laura, and, +suiting the action to the word, she shoved up a window that was handy. + +"Br-r-r!" came from several of the others. + +"My, but that's cold!" + +"We'll all get sick!" + +"I know a way to fix Laura!" cried Rhoda, and, as she spoke, the girl +from Rose Ranch leaned out of the window and reached upward. + +"What are you going to do?" asked Bess. + +"Get an icicle for her," answered Rhoda, and a moment later brought to +view an icicle she had broken away from a projection above the window. +The icicle was all of a foot and a half long and an inch or more in +thickness. + +"No, you don't!" cried Laura, leaping away as Rhoda came after her with +the bit of ice. "Don't you dare to put that thing down my neck!" + +"It will cool you off, Laura," said Rhoda; but just then she slipped +and went down, shattering the icicle into fragments. + +"No more noise," whispered Bess, closing the window. + +At that moment, Nan's clock, sounding the first stroke of midnight, +startled the girls. + +"The hour indeed waxeth late," whispered Laura, and vanished. + +One by one the others noiselessly followed. There was the almost +inaudible sound of softly closing doors, and quiet reigned over Lakeview +Hall. + +In Nan's room for the second time that night there was the sound of +measured breathing, but this time it was genuine. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + + ON THE ROAD + + +"Ugh!" shivered Nan the next morning when she came into the room after +her bath. "This isn't Palm Beach, is it, Bess? More like the North Pole, +eh?" + +"Palm Beach," echoed Bess disgustedly, as she reluctantly slipped out of +her warm bed and reached for her bathrobe. "It reminds me of it--it's so +different. When that horrid old rising gong sounded, I was dreaming that +I was there standing on the beach ready for a swim. I can feel that warm +sand about my feet now," and she gave her cold little feet a vicious +shove into her far from warm bedroom slippers. + +"I don't believe Grace has slept much," smiled Nan. + +"I know she hasn't," returned Bess, as she hurriedly dressed. "I'm sure +I wouldn't have slept a wink if I had been in her place. I believe I'd +just die if I were." + +"Then," returned Nan cheerfully, fastening the last snapper in her belt, +"I'm exceedingly glad you're not in Grace's place, for I prefer to see +you alive a little longer." + +They found Grace and Rhoda already in the lower hall, and knew by their +flushed faces that last night's news was still the fascinating topic of +conversation. All joined in, and were soon so absorbed that Laura's +voice made them start. + +"Beginning where you left off last night?" she was asking. "I don't +believe Grace went to bed at all, but just sat up and anticipated all +night long." + +"Not quite so bad as that," laughed Grace. "I went to bed, but I confess +that I was too excited to sleep very much." + +"It's perfectly safe to say that all of us dreamed of Palm Beach, +anyway," Bess conjectured. + +"I did," replied Laura, chuckling at the remembrance. "I dreamed I was +standing on one of those great broad piazzas. The moon was shining so +brightly that the palm trees stood out clearly, and the gleam of the +spray could be plainly seen as the breakers came rolling up on the +beach. The air was warm and delightful, and I was thinking how happy I +was to be there and of you unlucky girls shivering here at Lakeview +Hall, when a gong clanged, some one shouted 'fire,' and smoke came +pouring out of the hotel windows. I was so frightened I woke up and +found that old rising gong getting in its work. I tell you, girls, I was +mad enough to bite somebody." + +"Serves you right for leaving us here to freeze when you could so easily +have taken us with you," joked Nan. + +Several times while the girls were chatting, Linda Riggs and Cora +Courtney had passed very close to them in an effort to hear what they +were so excitedly talking about. But the girls had purposely lowered +their voices till, when the two passed, they were talking in whispers. +It was a great satisfaction to get Linda so keyed up with curiosity. + +"Some people are afraid to speak aloud," Linda remarked to Cora, during +one of their walks past the group, "because they don't dare let people +know what they're talking about." + +"They seem to think it's smart to be mysterious," sniffed Cora. + +But when they reached the end of the corridor, Linda stopped and said: + +"What do you suppose they are talking about anyway? I bet they are +hatching up something. I'd give my eyes to find out what it is, +especially if Nan Sherwood is in it." + +"You love her, don't you?" Cora asked sarcastically. + +"As I love poison ivy," Linda snapped vindictively. "I never could bear +her." + +"She was ordered to Doctor Beulah's room yesterday," said Cora. "I bet +she got a calling down for nearly killing that woman." + +"That's something I never did," sneered Linda; "nearly kill any one. Of +course, I'm glad no serious harm came to the woman. I don't want to see +her hurt. But what fun it would have been, to see Nan Sherwood up in +court for manslaughter." + +Just at that moment Bess Harley, who had gone up to her room for a +handkerchief, came down the stairs and heard the spiteful remark. +Shocked and indignant, she said angrily: + +"Of course, Linda Riggs, I know what makes you say those horrid things +about Nan. It's because she beat you in the race yesterday. And that +wasn't the last time, either. She'll always beat you, because she's +worth a dozen of you." + +Bess had unconsciously raised her voice, and Nan, hearing the angry +words, came quickly, and, laying her hand soothingly on her chum's arm, +said: + +"Don't mind, dear, come along," and drew her gently away. + +They passed into the breakfast room, while Linda, who had found no +answer ready, looked after them vindictively. + +She turned to Cora, and, giving her foot a vicious stamp, said: + +"Never mind, I'll see that Nan Sherwood gets all that's coming to her." + +"What do you mean?" asked Cora, her curiosity aroused. + +"I haven't thought it all out," snapped Linda, "but I have an idea, a +big idea. I'll tell you what it is later." + +Lessons rather dragged that morning. The girls were impatient to get +together and talk. A thousand things they had heard and read of the +glories of Palm Beach came between them and the printed page, and +questions that burned to be asked would persist in pushing their lessons +from their minds. Everybody was relieved by the ripple of laughter that +went round the class when Laura, a question of capital cities coming up, +slipped and said that the capital of Florida was the Royal Poinciana. + +Her teacher stared. + +"I beg your pardon, Laura?" she said frigidly. + +Laura reddened. + +"I--I--meant Palm Beach," she stammered. "Er--er--I should say, I meant +Tallahassee." + +The girls who were in the secret of Grace's forthcoming trip giggled and +looked meaningly at each other, and the recitation went on. But the +slowest quarter hours will pass at last, and on this day they merged +into hours and finally brought three o'clock and freedom. + +"That's over at last! Did you ever live through such a long day?" asked +Nan, as she put away her books and took her coat from the form. "Now for +Mrs. Bragley." + +"But first," said Bess, snatching up a small bonbon dish from the table, +"we've got to have funds, and 'the collection will now be taken.' My, +but you girls are generous!" she exclaimed exultantly, after she had +counted up the donations. "Mrs. Bragley is going to have _some_ spread!" + +The committee of three went around by way of the town in order to +purchase materials for the surprise spread for the woman they had run +down. When the basket was filled they fairly reveled in the +attractiveness of its contents. Boxes of crisp delicate crackers, +tumblers of jelly, jars of imported strawberries and cherries, a bunch +of California grapes that Rhoda said she was sure would weigh three +pounds, and some unusually fine Florida oranges. Piling the basket on +the sled that they had brought with them, they started gaily off, +dragging it behind them. + +After they had covered half the distance a voice hailed them, and Walter +came dashing up behind them in his cutter. Reining in the spirited horse +he was driving, he cried: + +"Jump in, girls. It's a dandy day for a spin." + +But they laughingly refused. + +"Too many of us for that cutter," said Rhoda. "We'd make an awful load." + +"And we don't want any men around anyway, to-day," laughed Bess. + +Walter heard, but he saw only Nan's glowing face. What he thought about +that face was plainly to be read in his eyes. + +"Isn't there anything that I can do for you?" he asked. "Don't you want +me to run the basket up to the cottage for you?" + +"No, thanks," replied Nan. "We're getting along finely. It's awfully +good of you, just the same." + +Walter chirped to his horse, still with his eyes on Nan's smiling face, +and, lifting his hat, drove on. + + + + + CHAPTER IX + + THE JOY OF GIVING + + +After Walter left it did not take the girls with their sled long to +reach Sarah Bragley's modest little cottage. + +Mrs. Ellis opened the door at their knock. + +"How is Mrs. Bragley to-day?" Nan asked, as they went in. + +"As well as can be expected," replied the nurse. "She had a little fever +last night, but not enough to be at all anxious about." + +"Has the doctor been here to-day?" queried Rhoda. + +"Yes," was the reply, "about an hour ago." + +"What did he say?" + +"He says she is doing very well," Mrs. Ellis answered. "The only thing +that gives him any concern is her lack of appetite. If he can coax that, +he thinks she will soon be well." + +"Perhaps these things will tempt her," remarked Nan, as she emptied the +contents of the basket upon the table. + +"How splendid!" exclaimed the nurse. "They are just the things she +needs. I'll go and tell her that you are here, and you can take them in +to her." + +Left alone, the girls glanced around them. A warm fire blazed in the +stove. Everything in the room was spotless. + +"Doesn't it look nice?" observed Bess. + +"Couldn't be any neater or more comfortable," judged Nan with +satisfaction. "I'm so glad we could get Mrs. Ellis." + +"She's a jewel, and no mistake," affirmed Rhoda. + +At Mrs. Ellis' invitation, the three girls trooped into Mrs. Bragley's +room. They were delighted to find her propped up in bed and looking very +cheerful and comfortable. + +"I'm glad to see you, young ladies," was her greeting to them. And she +looked with pleasure into the bright faces as the girls clustered about +the bed. + +"You are feeling pretty good to-day, Mrs. Ellis tells us," said Nan +brightly. + +"Oh, very much better," was the reply. "I ought to when I have so many +kind friends." + +Just then the nurse came in, bringing the delicacies that the girls had +purchased. + +"See what these friends have brought you," she said, as she lifted the +things one by one from the basket and placed them on a table by the side +of the bed. + +Mrs. Bragley's eyes grew wet with sudden tears. + +"You are too good to me, young ladies! What kind hearts there are in the +world!" + +The oranges especially seemed to please her, and Mrs. Ellis prepared one +for her. + +"How good that orange tastes," she remarked. "I've always been very fond +of them. At one time I thought I'd be owning a whole grove of them. But +that was just a dream." + +"What do you mean?" Rhoda asked, with interest. + +"Well, dearie," answered the woman, evidently pleased with Rhoda's +interest, "some years ago my husband thought he saw his way to make a +little fortune for us. He heard of a company in Florida that was +developing orange lands, and it looked so good to him that he bought a +share in it. He thought he was going to make money enough out of it to +make us safe for life. But nothing ever came of it." + +"Where was this land?" asked Nan. + +"Let me see," mused Mrs. Bragley, wrinkling her brow with the effort to +remember. "It was somewhere in Florida, but I can't remember the name. +It was--it was--I can't just think. Not that it matters much, anyhow, +but I hate to forget things that way. Sun--sun--Sunny Slopes. That's +what the name was." + +"What a pretty name!" cried Bess. + +"Yes. But that's about all that was pretty about it," replied Mrs. +Bragley, with a weak smile. "My husband invested almost all his savings +in it because he thought it was going to make him rich." + +"When was that?" asked Nan, who was growing deeply interested. + +"Only a short time before his death," came the answer sadly. + +"But haven't you heard anything about it since?" queried Bess +wonderingly. "You may really be rich, for all you know." + +Mrs. Bragley smiled wanly. + +"Not much chance of that, I fear," she replied. "I have written again +and again, but have never received any answer to my letters. I'm afraid +it was all a swindle." + +"You must have papers of some kind," observed Nan. + +"Yes," the woman assented. "They're in that bottom drawer there, if +you'll trouble to get them for me." + +Nan opened the drawer indicated and took from it a packet of papers. The +documents bore marks of frequent folding and unfolding. + +"May I look at them?" Nan asked, as she brought them to the bedside. + +"Surely," was the ready answer. "And if one of you will just hand me my +specs, I'll look over them with you and tell you all about them." + +The three girls bent eagerly over Mrs. Bragley as she opened one paper +after the other, prospectuses, several of them, highly colored +illustrated leaflets and descriptive circulars. Then came a certificate +for forty shares in the Sunny Slopes Development Company. The only +individual name on any of the papers seemed to be that of Jacob Pacomb, +who, it appeared, was the manager and the developer of the tract. + +"It's extremely strange that no answer ever came to any of your +letters," remarked Rhoda, as she scanned the documents. "Did any of the +letters ever come back?" + +"Not one," was the reply. + +"Perhaps the man did not receive them," conjectured Nan. + +"In that case," Mrs. Bragley replied, "the letters would have been +returned to me, as I put my name and address on the outside." + +"This man, Pacomb," suggested Bess, "may have died and all of the +letters may have been destroyed." + +"That wouldn't be very likely," objected Nan. "Some one would probably +have settled up the business or taken it over and kept on with it. In +either case, the letters would almost surely have been answered." + +"I have thought of all that," the woman replied; "and that is why I +think it must have been all a fraud. If I had been able to spare the +money I would have taken a trip to Florida and looked into the matter +myself, but I never felt that I could afford it." + +[Illustration: The three girls bent eagerly over Mrs. Bragley as she +opened one paper after another. (_See page 65_)] + +"It is too bad you couldn't have gone," said Rhoda thoughtfully; "for if +there was fraud you would then at least have found it out and could have +had somebody punished. It looks to me that, knowing you were a widow and +without means to look into things, they have deliberately held back any +money that might have been coming to you and cheated you out of your +rights." + +The girls had been so interested in the papers and the story that went +with them that they had thought of nothing else. Now Nan, suddenly +glancing up, noticed that the old face looked white and tired. She rose +at once. + +"I'm afraid we've stayed too long," she said penitently. "We ought to +have remembered that Mrs. Bragley isn't strong." + +She replaced the papers in the drawer, smoothed the bed covers, and gave +the injured woman a comforting pat on the shoulders. + +"I hope you will be well again very soon," she said, "and then perhaps +some way will be found to look into this matter." + +"Anyway, we're going to try to do something about it," promised Rhoda as +they took their leave. + +The girls found when they got outside that it had begun to snow. + +"Looks to me as if we were in for another storm," was Rhoda's comment, +as they trudged along. + +"Who cares?" cried Bess, catching up a handful of the snow and making a +snowball. + +"You can't hit anything," scoffed Nan. "Try it." + +"All right, here goes for the blacksmith shop," answered Bess gaily, for +they were almost directly in front of the little smithy. + +"Gracious! Going to try to hit the whole building?" queried the girl +from Rose Ranch. + +"A blind man could do that," added Nan. + +"I'm going to hit the door--the very middle of the door," answered Bess. + +"Oh, Bess! if the man is inside, what will he think?" said Nan. + +"I don't care what he thinks," was the quick reply. "Here goes!" + +Away flew the snowball, and it must be admitted that Bess's aim was +decidedly good, for the snowball sailed directly for the center of the +door of the smithy. + +But as the girl launched the snowball the door of the blacksmith shop +opened and a man came forth. + +Spat! the snowball landed directly in the man's face! + + + + + CHAPTER X + + A MIDNIGHT FEAST + + +"My gracious, Bess, see what you have done!" cried Nan. + +"You certainly hit the bull's eye that time," was Rhoda's comment. + +"Oh!" was the only word Bess could utter, and she stood there in the +roadway, her arm still poised high in the air as when she had thrown the +snowball. + +"Hi, you! Wot yer mean by heavin' snowballs at me?" screamed the man, as +he wiped the snow from his face. "You let me alone! I ain't done no +harm, I ain't." + +He waved his hands wildly in the air. The girls now noticed that he was +in tatters and had a very red nose, doubtless made redder than ever by +the snowball. + +"Come, move on now," said a voice from the smithy, and a tall man +wearing a leather apron appeared. "I told you before I'd not have you +hanging around here. Git!" + +"I ain't gonner be snowballed!" cried the tramp, for such he was. +"Tain't fair. I'm an honest man, I am. You lemme alone." + +"I'll do worse than snowball you if you don't clear out, and that mighty +quick," cried the blacksmith. "I know what you came in this place +for--you came to steal horseshoes and then sell 'em over to Beavertown." + +"I didn't--I came in to git warm," sniveled the tramp. But then, as the +blacksmith reached for a whip, he fairly ran down the snowy road and out +of sight. + +"Wasn't I lucky?" said Bess, when the girls had explained matters to the +blacksmith and moved on once more in the direction of the hall. "Only a +tramp, and it might have been the blacksmith himself!" + +"Well, we admit your aim was good," answered Nan drily. + +As they made their way back to the school the girls talked over the +matter of Mrs. Bragley's property. They came across Grace in the hall, +and, bearing her off to Nan's room, told her the story of Sunny Slopes. + +"Why!" exclaimed Grace, as a thought suddenly struck her, "I'll have dad +look that up while we're down at Palm Beach. You know he's a lawyer. +Maybe Sunny Slopes isn't far from where we'll be staying. I'll get him +to see what he can do." + +"That will be perfectly darling!" exclaimed Nan enthusiastically, and +the others heartily agreed with her. + +The next day, while returning from town where they had been stocking up +for the feast they had promised themselves, they again met Walter Mason. + +"Hello, girls," he called, as he came up to them. + +"Hello, Palm Beach," returned Laura. + +"So you've heard about it, have you?" Walter responded, with a laugh. + +"Have we?" replied Nan. "We haven't heard or talked or thought of +anything else since Grace told us." + +"Of course you're going along?" said Bess questioningly. + +"Of course," Walter answered. "But, to tell the truth, I'm not a bit +eager to go. I'd rather stay right here." + +They chatted a few minutes longer, and then Walter left them and the +girls resumed their walk toward the school. + +"Why do you suppose Walter would rather stay here than go to Palm +Beach?" Laura asked innocently of no one in particular. + +"That isn't hard to guess," replied Bess, with a mischievous glance at +Nan. "What do you think about it, Nan?" + +"I haven't any opinion," answered Nan demurely. "What I do know, though, +is that we'll have to hurry if we get back to the school before dark." + +That night had been set for the "spread," and the girls went early to +their rooms to get their lessons for the next day out of the way. A most +unusual and unnatural silence reigned in Nan's room for nearly two +hours. It was broken by a book snapping shut as Bess sprang to her feet, +exclaiming with satisfaction: + +"There, that's done! And it's the last, thank fortune." + +"Same here," answered Nan happily, as she gathered books and paper +together and tossed them into a far corner of the room. + +"Why, Nan!" exclaimed Bess in surprise, glancing at the clock, "where do +you suppose the girls are? They were to be on hand at ten o'clock, and +it's now five minutes after." + +"Lessons," replied Nan laconically. "They'll be here any second now." + +As she spoke the door opened softly, and Laura slipped in with a bundle +of things in her arms. Placing them on the table, she went back and +softly closed the door. + +"Do you know, girls," she said in a low tone, "I met Linda Riggs as I +was coming through the hall, and her eyes were two big bundles of +curiosity when she saw the things in my arms. I shouldn't be +surprised----" + +Suddenly, without waiting to finish the sentence, she went back to the +door, opened it quickly and stepped out into the hall to see Linda, +looking red and confused, walking hurriedly away. + +Laura called after her. + +"Was there anything you wanted, Linda?" she inquired sweetly. + +"No, thank you," came the pert rejoinder. "Not now. Later, perhaps." + +Laura returned. + +"Of all the mean, sneaking----" she began, but Nan laughingly +interrupted. + +"There, there, Laura, what's the use? Don't give her a second thought." + +"She isn't worth it, that's a fact," Laura contented herself with +saying, and the next minute the entrance of the other girls laden with +parcels put anything else out of her mind. + +Rhoda's box, much to the girl's uneasiness, had been delayed, but had +come that night just before dinner. Now she deposited it unopened on a +chair. + +"I thought it would be fun to open it here and see what blessings it had +in store for us," she explained, as she proceeded to open and unpack it. + +"Blessings!" echoed Nan. "Well, I should say they were," she added, as, +one after another, a big layer cake, a small fruit cake, some cakes +prettily iced, bottles of choice olives, salted almonds and peanuts, +jars of jelly and marmalade, fruit, and a big package of fresh assorted +bonbons were drawn from the box. + +"Oh, for pity's sake, girls, let's hurry and get at them," cried Laura. +"My mouth's fairly watering for them." + +As she spoke, she drew Nan's spirit lamp from its shelf and soon had the +water for cocoa boiling in a small saucepan. + +"Why in the world," said Grace as she set the plates and cups and +saucers on the table, "did we go and buy all these things? If we'd only +known what that box was going to hold we wouldn't have needed half of +them." + +"No matter, the sandwiches and ice cream will come in well," said Laura. +"That is," she added, "if there's anything of the ice cream left. I put +it outside the minute we got it here, but it's had a long time to wait." + +"It won't have to wait much longer," exulted Bess, as the girls gathered +around the table and the feast began. + +"Hey! don't let Grace cut that fruit cake yet," said Nan, her mouth full +of cream cheese sandwich. "There won't be a raisin left for the rest of +us." + +"If you eat many more sandwiches," laughed Grace, "you won't have room +left for even a raisin." And she calmly proceeded not only to cut the +cake, but to help herself to a very generous slice. + +"Um-um--this is good," she said. "Fruit cake is my special weakness." + +"Yes, and it's our duty to help you conquer that weakness," remarked +Laura virtuously, as she drew the fruit cake over to her side of the +table. + +"Now where did I put that sugar bowl?" asked Bess, as she finished +pouring her third cup of cocoa. + +"Here it is," replied Rhoda, as she accommodatingly handed over a small +glass bowl from which Bess helped herself to a generous double spoonful. +One swallow of her cocoa, and she began to sputter and gasp, and finally +made a frantic grab for a tumbler of water. + +"What on earth is the matter with the child?" asked Laura. + +"Salt," Bess managed to articulate. "You gave me the salt, Rhoda, +instead of the sugar. Oh, what a dose!" + +The girls wanted to shout with laughter, but caution made them smother +it as much as possible. And just at this juncture, the door opened part +way without even one little warning squeak, and a severe voice said: + +"Young ladies, report to me at my office at noon to-morrow." + + + + + CHAPTER XI + + A DANGEROUS PLOT + + +The girls, their laughter quenched, gazed at each other for a few +seconds with stupefaction. Then Nan sprang to the door, opened it, and +caught sight of a silently scurrying figure that could not by any means +be confounded with Mrs. Cupp's angular form or slow, measured movements. + +The other girls, astonished, gazed at Nan open-mouthed as she re-entered +the room with flushed and indignant face and uttered the one +enlightening word: + +"Linda." + +"It sure was!" + +"Of all the nerve!" began Laura slowly. + +"Of all the meanness, I should say," amended Rhoda indignantly, as she +turned the key in the door. + +Then the funny side struck them, and they sat doubled up with suppressed +laughter. + +With increased hilarity the feast went on. The ice cream was brought in +and found to be in a very creditable state of preservation, and the +layer cake and small iced cakes were very soon being gobbled up. + +To illustrate that "variety is the spice of life," so she said, Laura +had just followed some ice cream with a sour pickle, when a footstep +neared the door and a stern voice commanded them to open it. + +"Linda," whispered Grace to Bess, who was nearest her, while Laura said +in a perfectly audible though subdued voice: + +"You can just go about your business, you essence of meanness." + +"You needn't think you can work that trick on us twice," added Grace. + +"Don't judge our intellects by your own," scoffed Rhoda. "You must think +we were born yesterday." + +The girls laughed at the sally, and silence ensued for a moment. + +"I guess that has disposed of Linda for the rest of the night," exulted +Laura, and she applied herself again to the now rapidly melting ice +cream. + +"Let's finish this cream while the eating's good," laughed Nan, when her +spoon was arrested on its way to her mouth by a voice outside the door. + +"Nan Sherwood, I command you to open this door." + +In overwhelming consternation the girls rose to their feet, and Nan +unlocked and opened the door. + +Quivering with anger and outraged dignity, Mrs. Cupp swept the room with +flashing eyes. + +"You will go to your rooms, young ladies, and you will all report at Dr. +Prescott's room to-morrow morning at ten o'clock," she decreed, and, +turning, moved majestically down the corridor, leaving black +consternation behind her. + +"Now, we are in for it!" gasped Rhoda, as the sound of footsteps died +away. + +Too overwhelmed to say another word, the others slipped away to their +rooms. + +The next morning, with many inward quakings, they entered the +principal's room. Dr. Prescott's voice was severe as she said to the +five caught-in-the-act delinquents: + +"You are ready to admit, I presume, that you have broken one of the +rules of the school. That I can understand. But that you should have +been guilty of disrespect to one of the officers of the school is quite +another and more serious thing. Have you any explanation to offer?" + +After a moment's silence, Nan acted as spokesman. + +"We did not intend to be disrespectful to Mrs. Cupp," she declared, and +then went on and told the whole story. + +"That puts things in a better light," said Dr. Prescott, when Nan had +finished. "But to make you more careful in future and to remind you that +the rules of Lakeview Hall are made to be observed, not ignored, I will +forbid you all to go outside the grounds for three full days. You can +go now to your recitations." + +The girls bowed and withdrew, and for the rest of the morning they were +unusually quiet. At noon they gathered in Laura's room, dropped into the +nearest chairs at hand, and looked at each other lugubriously. + +"Three days without poking our noses outside the gates!" mourned Bess. +"How are we ever going to stand it?" + +"I don't care much for that," commented Rhoda. "But I hate to give that +Linda Riggs anything to gloat over." + +"And she will," declared Grace. "She'll make the very most of it, you +can be sure." + +"She will." + +"Oh, well, let her then," said Laura, recovering something of her usual +spirits. "Say, girls, did you see the expression on Cupp's face when we +opened the door?" + +They burst into a merry laugh at the remembrance, and the laugh lessened +the tension and did them good. + +"Oh!" gasped Laura, as she wiped the tears from her eyes, "I shall +remember that look when I'm an old woman." + +"I suspect Cupp will remember the occasion, too, for many days to come," +prophesied Nan. + +"I wish there had been a glass opposite the door, so that she could +have seen her face," remarked Bess, going off into another gale of +laughter. + +"Come on," said Rhoda, when they had settled down. "Let's go for a walk +on the campus and get some fresh air. Thank goodness, we can do that, +anyway." + +"Oh, dear," sighed Nan, as they went downstairs. "No coasting, no +skating for three days. What a fate!" + +"No matter," comforted Grace. "The feast was worth it. The memory +lingers." + +"It does," agreed Laura. "I can taste that layer cake yet. But come, +girls, I challenge you to a race around the campus. One, two, +three--go!" + +"Wait until I make certain my shoe is tight," cried Grace. + +"And wait until I get my cap fastened on," added Nan. + +"No primping now!" exclaimed Laura. "Everybody ready?" + +"What's the prize?" questioned Bess. "I can't run well unless I know +it's worth it." + +"You get the hole out of a doughnut," said Nan. "All sugared over, too." + +"And a glass of frozen ice-water," added Grace. + +"This is all the way around the campus," went on Laura. "No cutting +corners, remember. You must follow the trees and the hedge. One cent +fine if you don't. All ready? One--two--three, go!" + +With wild shouts and much laughter the race around the campus was on. + +Nan won "by a nose," as Laura rather slangily put it, and the girls, +glowing and breathless, looked like anything else than confessed +law-breakers doing penance. + +The sight of their happy faces was too much for Linda, who, with Cora, +was passing them, drawing the _Gay Girl_ and carrying their skates over +their shoulders. + +"Some people try mighty hard to show that they're having a good time," +she remarked to her companion. + +"Blessings brighten as they take their flight, as the girl said when she +couldn't leave the campus," grinned Cora maliciously. + +"Well," countered Nan, "at least we're not doing penance for sneaking in +the dark and listening at doors." + +The flush on Linda's face showed that the shot had reached the mark. + +"You think you know a lot, don't you?" she mocked, as she and Cora went +on. + +"How I detest that Nan Sherwood," hissed Linda. "I'll get square with +her some day, and that day isn't so far off either. I know just how I'm +going to fix her." + +"Why do you keep on being so mysterious?" asked Cora impatiently. +"You're always hinting and getting my curiosity aroused and then +stopping short. Go on and tell me now." + +But Linda refused, saying that she wanted to be sure first that her +plans would go through all right. + +"When I do spring things," she said, "I'll square up all accounts." + +Cora sulked, but had to submit. + +Several days later, as Nan and Bess were studying in their room, Bess +wrote the final word in a French translation with a sigh of relief. + +"Didn't you say once, Nan," she queried, "that you had somewhere a book +of model French conversations?" + +"Yes," answered Nan, looking up from her work. "Do you want it?" + +"I'd like it ever so much," Bess answered. "I think it would help me +with these wretched idioms that puzzle me so. Could you get it for me?" + +"Surely, Bess," assented Nan, with obliging readiness. "It's down in my +trunk. I'll go right down to the basement to-morrow after we finish our +English recitation at twelve o'clock and get it for you." + +"That's a darling, Nan," returned Bess gratefully. "I know it will help +me heaps." + +During this conversation their door had been standing open, and Linda +Riggs, who was passing (she made occasion often to pass Nan's door), +heard every word. An exultant look came into her face, and she hurried +off to find Cora. She told her eagerly that at last she knew just how +and when she was going to get even with that much-hated Nan Sherwood. + +"What are you going to do?" asked Cora, excited and yet a little fearful +of any scheme that Linda might hatch. + +"I'm going to give her the scare of her life," replied Linda. "The idea +came to me the other day when I was in the trunk room in the basement. +The steam started to blow off with such a whistle close to my ears that +it made me almost jump out of my skin. I feel sure that if the steam can +only be held down for a little while and then go off with a rush it will +be ten times louder. If that could be made to happen just as Sherwood +was going past, it would scare her out of a year's growth. She'd think +her last hour had come. The trouble has been that I never knew just when +she'd be there. But I know now. I just heard her say. She's in for the +biggest fright of her life. How does it strike you?" + +"It sounds all right," answered Cora slowly. "But how are you going to +do it?" + +"Easily," said Linda, with a confident ring in her voice. "After the +janitor has fixed up the fires for the day to-morrow morning he'll not +be in the basement. I'll slip down before Sherwood is due to get there +and tie down the valve. That'll keep the steam confined and make the +shriek that much louder when it's let loose. I'll hide behind the +woodpile, and just when Sherwood is opposite the furnace, I'll cut the +string and--_voila_." + +"All very fine," remarked Cora half-heartedly. "But isn't it awfully +dangerous? Have you thought what might happen if you confine the steam?" + +"Of course I've thought of that, stupid," replied Linda, nettled at +Cora's lack of enthusiasm. "But the steam won't be held back long enough +to do any harm." + +"I'm not so sure of that," said Cora, who felt very uneasy about the +possible results of her friend's malicious scheme. + +"Nonsense," retorted Linda. "I'll take all the risk, if there is any. +But there won't be. I've planned it out too carefully to make any +mistake about it. It's too good a chance to get even with Nan Sherwood +to let it go by." + + + + + CHAPTER XII + + ALMOST A DISASTER + + +"I wouldn't risk it if I were you, Linda," Cora persisted. + +"Oh, what's the use of talking to you!" exclaimed Linda angrily. "You +haven't got enough sense to understand. I wish I hadn't told you a word +about it," and she turned her back upon her chum and refused to say +another word. + +Cora, daring for once to be angry in her turn, left the room, and Linda +soon forgot her in gloating over the fright she was plotting for Nan. + +The next morning after the eleven o'clock recitation had begun, Linda +made a pretext for leaving the room. She slipped down into the basement +and then came back to her seat to await developments. + +Meanwhile, the well-ordered routine of Lakeview Hall was proceeding as +usual. The hands of the great clock in the English recitation room +pointed to a quarter of twelve, and sidelong looks were being cast at it +in pleasurable anticipation of the noon hour. + +Bang! + +Suddenly the crash of a loud explosion filled every one with terror. The +building trembled to its foundations. Clouds of steam poured up from the +basement. + +A wild cry rent the air. + +"What's that?" + +"Sounded like an explosion to me." + +"Maybe it's an earthquake." + +"Oh, see the smoke." + +"The school must be on fire!" + +"I'm going to get out of here!" + +"Oh, yes, let me out; I don't want to be burnt alive!" + +"Fire! Fire! The Hall is on fire!" + +In an instant a panic was on. The teachers alone and some of the older +girls kept their heads. The younger pupils rushed for the doors in a +frenzy of fright. + +The English teacher ran to one of the doors of her recitation room and +held it fast. But there was another door in the room, and toward this +the frightened girls poured in a mad stampede. Just outside was the +stairway with several sharp turns, and if the fugitives jammed up on one +of the landings it might mean maiming or death for some of them. + +Quick as a flash, Nan Sherwood acted. She sprang to the danger door, +slammed it shut and put her back against it. The tide surged up against +her. The younger girls clawed at her, scratched her hands, did all in +their power to force her away from the door. But she held her place with +desperation, though her clothes were torn, and her hands were bleeding. + +Then through the crowd came Linda Riggs, bowling the smaller girls out +of her way, her face as pale as death and her eyes almost bulging out of +her head with fright. + +"Let me get out, Nan Sherwood!" she screamed, tearing at her with all +her might. "Let me out! Let me out! I'll die! I won't stay here to be +burned to death! Get away from that door! Let me get out!" + +She tore at Nan and struck her in the face. She was a strong girl, and +doubly strong now in her rage and fright. But Nan braced herself and +still held the door, though her strength was fast ebbing. + +Just then help came. Rhoda Hammond and Bess Harley caught hold of Linda +and pulled her away. They thrust her into a seat and held her down, +while Laura and others of the older girls pacified and soothed the +younger ones. + +The worst was over. The steam had thinned out and drifted away. The +pupils slowly went back to their seats at the command of the teacher and +sat there, sobbing and moaning and weak from excitement. But the panic +had been quelled. + +Now that the crisis had passed, Nan felt her strength leaving her, and +she had scarcely enough left to get back to her seat. She almost fell +into it when at last she reached it. + +Just then, Dr. Prescott, who from the moment of the first alarm had been +in other parts of the building, helping to quell the excitement, entered +the room. She took her stand beside the teacher and held with her a +brief conversation in which she learned what had occurred in the room. +Then she spoke a few quiet words of assurance, telling the girls that +there had not been, and was not now, any danger and warmly commending +the bravery and self-control of the teacher and the older girls. She +then dismissed them. + +A refreshing half-hour in their rooms did the girls a world of good, and +when the lunch gong sounded they gathered about the table in something +like their normal spirits. It is true that none ate very much, but +tongues flew fast in comment and conjecture. + +"How could it have happened?" was the many-times-repeated question. Was +it the janitor's fault? He must have forgotten to turn off the drafts +perhaps, and the accumulated gas had exploded. + +"Probably something was wrong with the safety valve," conjectured Rhoda, +building better than she knew. + +"Well," said Nan, as at last they rose from the table, "I hope they'll +find out what did cause it so that it will never happen again." + +Naturally, there were no more lessons that afternoon. The girls gathered +in groups in the corridors or in each others' rooms excitedly discussing +the stirring events of the morning. + +Nan lay upon the couch in her room, resting after her exertions, when +Grace, who had been telephoning to Walter, came in bursting with news. + +"What do you think I heard downstairs!" she cried before she was fairly +in the room. "Doctor Beulah thinks that it wasn't an accident at all, +but that the whole thing was caused by some one tampering with the +boiler." + +The girls all spoke at once. + +"Oh, that couldn't be!" + +"Who'd have any object in doing a thing that might have cost lives?" + +"Isn't it awful!" + +"Anyway," Grace went on as soon as they gave her a chance to speak, +"they say that a heavy cord had been tied to the valve to keep it down +and the broken ends of the cord were found hanging from it." + +The girls were stupefied with astonishment. + +Suddenly Laura started up and walked excitedly about the room. + +"There's this much about it!" she exclaimed. "If some one did do it +purposely, Doctor Beulah will soon find out when it was done, and why it +was done--_and who did it, too_," she added significantly. + +Laura knew by the expression on all the faces that the same thought +that had been in her mind when she spoke those last words was in the +minds of the other girls, too. + +If two very depressed and frightened girls in another room could have +heard them, their spirits would have sunk still lower. + +"What did I tell you!" cried Cora wildly. "I begged you not to do it. +And what did you make by it? Disgraced yourself and only made Nan +Sherwood more popular than ever." + +For once, Linda was silent. Cora made the most of her chance to get back +at Linda for her high-handed treatment of her. She went on mercilessly: + +"I was so ashamed of you," she said. "You made such a show of yourself. +I didn't think you could be such a coward." + +"Well," whined Linda, "I had more to live for, with all my money, than +they had." + +"That sounds like you," gibed Cora disgustedly. "Well, I pity you if +Doctor Beulah finds out you did it. And she will, you can just depend on +that." + +In the meantime Bess, with some other girls, visited the basement to +look at the wreckage. When she came back she had a queer look on her +face. She called Nan to one side. + +"See what I found," she said and held out a small handkerchief with a +daisy worked in one corner. "It was in the basement, close to the +wrecked boiler." + +Nan looked at the bit of linen and started. She remembered having seen +Linda Riggs with such a handkerchief more than once. + +"But Linda may have dropped it down there since the explosion," she +said, quickly. + +"I guess not!" drawled Bess. "This looks like a bit of real evidence to +me." + +"Oh, Bess--don't say anything--at least not till you are sure." + +"I won't. But I'll remember it." + +At this moment the gong sounded a summons to the main assembly hall, a +summons which the girls obeyed with alacrity. + +Knowing as they did that an examination of the steam plant had been +going on, and their interest and curiosity quickened by the rumors they +had heard, it was not long before every seat was filled and all eyes +turned expectantly on Dr. Prescott. She sat there, rather pale, but +dignified and well poised. + +"What is she going to say?" each girl asked herself. The tension was at +its height, the silence could almost be felt, when Dr. Prescott began to +speak. + +"A thorough examination has shown us," she began, "that the steam plant +is very badly damaged, though we hope that it may be possible to repair +it in a short time. But the investigation," she went on, "has revealed +the almost unbelievable fact that there was no accident, but a +deliberate plan or trick. Who conceived it or why, is not yet known, but +we will spare no effort to find the guilty party and bring him or her +to punishment. I am very thankful that the injury was confined to the +steam plant and that no one was hurt, as might easily have been the +case. + +"I am very proud of the presence of mind and bravery shown by the +teachers and many of the students. Many of the younger girls and all the +older ones, with one shameful exception"--she paused, and all eyes were +turned on Linda, who sat cowering in her seat--"showed remarkable +self-possession, and I take this opportunity to thank them all. I +hesitate to mention any names, but I must single out Nan Sherwood, who, +by her prompt action and cool courage, contributed in so large a measure +to avert the dreadful consequences of a panic." + +With these words she dismissed them. + +As the girls left the assembly hall they broke out into a Babel of +excited comment. Dr. Prescott, crossing the hall on the way to her +office, placed her arm over Nan's shoulders and thanked her personally. +Nan's heart swelled at the earnest words of praise, for Dr. Prescott's +good opinion was highly valued. + +"Of course," the doctor added with a whimsical smile, "the three-day +sentence is remitted for you and your friends." + +She passed on. + +"Isn't she just splendid!" exclaimed Grace. + +"And how nicely she seemed to manage the whole situation," remarked +Rhoda. + +"She's a peach!" declared Laura, slangily. + +"I should say she is! And so is somebody else I know," agreed Bess, as +she drew Nan's arm through hers. + + + + + CHAPTER XIII + + THE WILY STRANGER + + +"What _is_ this anyway?" asked Bess. "Greenland or the North Pole?" + +"Well, it's Siberia at the very least," laughed Nan, as, wrapped in +outdoor coats and furs, the girls entered the recitation room the second +morning after the explosion. + +School without heat in weather that came close to the zero mark was not +very enticing, and it was glad news to all the girls when it was +announced that, owing to the injury to the steam plant, which was +greater than was at first thought, the school term would end nearly a +week ahead of time pending extensive repairs. Those who were going home +were directed to begin to pack at once, and those who were not would be +provided with quarters in the village. + +After hearing this announcement the girls flew upstairs on winged feet. + +"An extra week at home! What happiness!" exclaimed Bess, whirling Nan +around until they both dropped breathless on the window seat. + +"And think of Grace with another week at Palm Beach to look forward to!" +cried Nan. + +"What luck for her!" said Bess enviously, as she began taking her things +from the dresser drawer. + +Soon the last trunk was locked and strapped and they were ready to +depart. + +"Let's run to town for a last visit to Mrs. Bragley," proposed Nan. + +Bess gladly acquiesced, and the two girls were off. They were delighted +to find Mrs. Bragley sitting up and able to get around a little with a +cane. She greeted them gratefully and was profuse in her thanks for all +the care they had shown her. And she was intensely interested in their +story of the explosion at the school. + +"And now," said Nan, after they had chatted for a while, "how about +those papers? We are going home sooner than we thought, and if you will +give them to me I will show them to Grace Mason's father. He is a very +able lawyer and will get to the bottom of this orange grove if any one +can." + +"That will be fine," was the gratified reply. "The papers are right +here. I have been looking them over. Take them if you wish, dear." + +Mrs. Bragley took them from the table and handed them to Nan, and the +latter tucked them safely away in her bag. + +"I may be carrying a fortune away in this bag," she said jokingly, as +she snapped the catch and rose to go. + +"I'm afraid they're not worth the paper they're printed on," said the +woman dubiously. + +"Hope on, hope ever," quoted Bess gaily, as, with a last wave of the +hand, she followed Nan out of the door. + +They were almost to the school when Bess suddenly asked: + +"Do you know that man, Nan? He looks as though he were going to speak to +us." + +Nan looked up just as a tall thin man approached them. He lifted his hat +and said: + +"I beg pardon, young ladies, but could you inform me where the Widow +Bragley lives?" + +Nan pointed out the cottage and the man thanked her and passed on. + +"What a peculiar way he had of talking," said Bess, as they resumed +their walk. + +"I noticed that he talked like a Southerner," replied Nan. "I wonder +what business he can have with Mrs. Bragley." + +"Hard to tell," said Bess. "I only hope it isn't a bill collector to +bother the poor thing." And then the schoolgirls passed on their way. + +The stranger soon reached the cottage of Mrs. Bragley. He scanned it +carefully and noted its poverty. A contented smile stole over his face +as he said to himself: + +"I imagine there won't be any trouble in getting what I came for. A +little money here will go a long way." + +He knocked on the door and Mrs. Ellis opened it. + +"Does Mrs. Sarah Bragley live here?" the stranger inquired with an +ingratiating smile, which, however, sat rather badly on his somewhat +sinister countenance. + +"Yes," replied Mrs. Ellis. "But she's not very well and has gone to lie +down. Is it anything I can do for you?" + +"No, thank you," replied the stranger. "My errand with her is a personal +one. I've come all the way from the South to see her on a matter of +private business." + +"If that's the case, I think she'll see you," replied the nurse, +ushering him in and giving him a seat. + +She excused herself and went into the bedroom, and in a few minutes Mrs. +Bragley appeared, a little curious and considerably flustered by the +announcement of a visitor from such a distance. + +"My name is Thompson," the visitor said, as he rose and bowed. "I came +from Florida to see you on a business matter. I'm sorry to learn that +you are not well, and I'd put the matter off, only that I have +arrangements made to get back home as soon as possible." + +"From Florida?" repeated the old woman. "It can't be that you've come to +see me about that orange grove property there that my husband put all +our money into before he died?" + +"If you refer to the property at Sunny Slopes," returned the visitor, +"you are right. It is just that that I came to see you about." + +"Laws me!" ejaculated the widow in some excitement. "And here it was +only a little while ago I was saying that I never expected to hear from +it. I wrote and wrote and never heard a word from it. I began to think," +she went on a little apologetically, "that there might be some fraud or +something of that kind about it." + +"Oh, nothing like that," the visitor said impressively. "Mr. Pacomb is +the soul of honor. I have never known him to do anything that wasn't +straight and aboveboard." + +"I'm very glad to hear that," said the simple-hearted old woman. "He +wrote such beautiful letters to us when he was asking us to put our +money into the property that I thought he must be a nice man. I'm very +sorry that I ever had an unkind thought about him. I'm so glad to know +that things are all right. I need the money so badly. And my poor +husband always thought there would be a whole lot of money come from +it." + +The stranger looked a little embarrassed. + +"Quite right, quite right," he said. "There ought to have been a big +profit from it. Everybody thought so, and nobody felt more sure of it +than Mr. Pacomb himself. He thought so well of it that he put every +cent of his own money into it." + +"Then he's made a fortune in it, too!" exclaimed the old woman, beaming +on her visitor. + +The stranger coughed. + +"No," he said, "that's the unfortunate thing about it. You see, Mrs. +Bragley, the thing didn't turn out as we had hoped and expected. The +land was right in the orange belt, and we had every reason to believe +that it would yield big results. But for some reason or other it didn't. +The ground couldn't have been adapted to it. You never can tell about +orange groves." + +The poor woman's face fell. + +"Then," she said quaveringly, "all my money is gone!" + +"Oh, no, not all," the stranger hastened to say. "There is still a +little money for you, if you want to sell what interest you have in the +property. Of course the property has proved practically worthless. But +the man who has a country estate bordering on the property is willing to +pay the company a small sum just to round out his estate, and your +interest in it we calculate would be about two hundred dollars. In +fact," he went on with a burst of generosity, and at the same time +taking a roll of bills from his pocket, "Mr. Pacomb would be willing to +give you two hundred dollars to settle the matter up at once." + +He began to count out the bills, as if the matter had been agreed upon. +It was a long time since Mrs. Bragley had seen so much money, and in her +straitened circumstances two hundred dollars seemed like a fortune. The +visitor had counted on the influence exerted by the sight of the money, +and he was not disappointed. + +"Well," said Mrs. Bragley, "I suppose it's the best thing I can do, +since you say that the land isn't any good for oranges." + +"We'll consider it settled then," the man observed, trying to conceal +his satisfaction. "Now if you'll get me the papers I'll hand you the +money." + +A look of dismay came into the woman's face. + +"The--the papers!" she stammered. "Why, I haven't got them!" + +"You haven't got them?" the man snapped in wonder. "Where are they +then?" + +"I gave them to a young lady not more than an hour ago," replied Mrs. +Bragley. "She had just gone a little before you came." + +"Why did you give them to her?" the man asked. + +"Some friends of hers are going to Florida and they were going to look +up the matter," replied the old lady. "It seems that the father of one +of the girls is a lawyer and----" + +"A lawyer!" interrupted the man, a look of fear coming into his face. +Then by a great effort he regained his self-control. + +"Well, Mrs. Bragley," he said, "it's for you to do what you choose in +this matter. It's too bad for you to lose this two hundred dollars when +you might just as well have it as not. Suppose I see this young lady and +tell her that you want the papers back." + +"I wish you would," replied the old lady. Then she gave the man Nan's +name and told him where she thought he could find her. He scribbled the +name and address in a notebook, and a little later hurried away. + +"If I don't find that Nan Sherwood and get the papers away from her my +name isn't Jacob Pacomb," he muttered to himself. + +With all speed he hurried to the Hall, only to learn that Nan had left +for the depot. Then he rushed to the station. + +"Sorry, but the train left quarter of an hour ago," declared the station +master in reply to his question. "There won't be another train for three +hours." + +On gaining this information the face of Jacob Pacomb became a study. +Savagely he bit off the end of a cigar, lit it, and began to puff away +furiously. + +"That young woman from the school may be a sharp one," he murmured as he +strode up and down the little depot platform. "I'll have to use either +force or diplomacy in getting those papers from her. I mustn't let her +think they are valuable. I wonder what I can do next? It's too bad I +promised to go to Chicago to attend that sale. But I can't afford to +miss that." He mused for a moment. "Wonder if I couldn't get Davis and +Jensen to do this job for me? They are hanging around doing nothing and +would do almost anything for the price of a meal. Yes, I'll see Davis +and Jensen and set them on the girl's track." + +In the meantime Nan and Bess were being whirled at the rate of fifty +miles an hour toward the home where love and open arms awaited them. + +Their parents had, of course, been apprised of their coming, and the +welcome was the royal one that always greeted them after their long +absences from home. Nothing was too good for them. + +Several days passed quickly, and then came great news. The first item +was a notification from Dr. Prescott that since the steam plant had +required far more extensive repairs than at first had seemed necessary, +the reopening would be deferred for several weeks beyond the usual time. +And following this closely came a letter to each of the girls from Grace +Mason. They _must_ go with her to Palm Beach. The "must" was +underscored. She would take no denial. They would have such a perfectly +gorgeous time if they could only come along. Please, please, _please!_ +They simply _must_, and that was all there was about it. + +Nan and Bess were filled with delight and excitement. But they had to +reckon with their parents, who were reluctant to spare their girls after +having them with them for so short a time. But the girls coaxed and +wheedled, as girls will, and the parents finally yielded, as parents +will. In the next few days the matter was settled and hurried +preparations were begun. + +More than once they had to pinch themselves to make sure they were not +dreaming. Palm Beach! Land of summer, land of flowers, land of beauty! +And they--Nan Sherwood and Bess Harley--were actually going to dwell for +a time in that earthly Paradise! + + + + + CHAPTER XIV + + GREAT EXPECTATIONS + + +Nan was really going to Palm Beach! She could scarcely realize her good +fortune. + +Grace had written that some cousins who were to go had disappointed +them, so good accommodations were assured to Nan and Bess when they +reached Palm Beach. + +Nan was up in her bedroom in the evening looking dreamily out of the +window and imagining she was already at the famous winter resort when +she gave a start. + +Two men were slinking around, behind some trees on the opposite side of +the street! From time to time they gazed at the house as if looking for +somebody. + +"The same men! What can it mean?" + +Nan breathed the words to herself. She had seen these men before since +coming home from school. They had leered at her when on an errand to the +drugstore, and one of them had acted as if he wanted to speak to her +while she was at the depot asking for a timetable. But a man friend had +come up to greet her and the stranger had slunk away. + +Nan's first impulse was to call her father and mother. But then she +hesitated. Why worry her parents, and especially her mother, when, after +all, it might mean little or nothing? + +She looked again. Some men had come up the street. At sight of them the +two slinking ones shrank back and presently hurried away. + +"I hope I never see them again," said the girl to herself. But this wish +was not to be gratified. + +Yet the next day Nan gave the strange men hardly a thought. There were +so many things to be done in preparation for the great trip. + +"It's not like going out to Rose Ranch, where any old thing was good +enough to wear," Nan confided to Bess. "We've got to look our best, on +Grace's account as well as our own." + +"And Walter's," added Bess, and then Nan promptly threw a book at her +chum. + +A day more, and then came the all-important time for departure. + +"Oh, just to think of it! We are really and truly going!" + +Nan was seated on an overturned suitcase on the porch of the little +"dwelling in amity." Her hands were clasped tightly in front of her to +keep her from jumping up and running off madly somewhere, anywhere--just +to relieve her tremendous excitement. + +Never in her life had it seemed so hard to keep still. Her trunk had +gone to the station, her bag was packed, and everything was ready to +catch the ten-o'clock train for New York. From there she and Bess were +to take the boat, which was to carry them swiftly down the coast to +Jacksonville, the gateway to Florida. + +Everything was in readiness that is save Momsey. All that separated her +from that desirable state was one small and pretty fur hat which Momsey +was just now fitting on in front of the mirror in the little +sitting-room. + +But it did take a long time just to put on one hat, thought Nan with a +sigh. Momsey never used to be so slow. Then, unable to bear it a moment +longer, she jumped to her feet and peeped in at the door of the little +"dwelling in amity." + +What she saw made her pause, a smothered exclamation on her lips, her +eyes dancing. For Papa Sherwood was there with Momsey and he was looking +at her with as much admiration in his eyes as though they had been +married only one year, instead of--oh, Nan couldn't remember how many! + +"That trip overseas was just what you needed to make a girl of you +again, Momsey," Papa Sherwood was saying in a tone that matched his +look. "You might be our Nan's older sister. And isn't that a new hat?" + +Momsey had started to make him a demure curtsey when Nan's clear laugh +interrupted the tete-a-tete. + +"Excuse me," she said, her eyes dancing. "Far be it from me to be in the +way of anything--and, Momsey, you do look wonderful in that hat--but you +know that train won't wait all day. Oh, Momsey! Papa Sherwood!"--she +waltzed in upon them and hugged them gaily--"isn't it perfectly, +wonderfully gorgeous?" + +"What now, honey?" asked Momsey, as she rearranged the pretty hat which +Nan had pushed down unbecomingly over one eye. + +"What now?" repeated Nan breathlessly. "What now? Why, +Florida--Jacksonville--Palm Beach! No, don't look at me as though I had +gone crazy. I'm only raving. Come on, come on, you slow pokes." She half +pushed her laughing parents toward the door. "You can carry the +suitcase, Papa Sherwood, and I'll carry the hat box. There's only one +other bundle, and I'll take that one and Momsey can bring up the rear +with the lunch. I wonder what Bess will say when she sees the lunch," +she chuckled, as her father carefully locked the door of the little +house and put the key in his pocket. + +"Well, I think I know what she will say when she tastes it," said her +father as all three started down the street toward the more pretentious +house where Bess lived. "For Momsey put up the lunch with her own +hands--and I saw what went into it." + +"Yes, and you might tell her, honey," added Mrs. Sherwood, with a soft +laugh, "what hard work I had to keep you from eating all the nuts from +the brown bread sandwiches." + +"Oh, Momsey, don't," sighed Nan. "You will make me hungry again, and I +have just had breakfast. See! There's Bess. Goodness, doesn't she look +pretty?" + +Both Momsey and Papa Sherwood had to admit that Bess was very pretty +indeed in the bright winter sunlight, but each privately thought that +their Nan, with her sparkling brown eyes and flushed cheeks, was, in her +own way, even prettier than Bess. + +"Hello, you folks!" called Bess as she reached them, out of breath from +exercise and excitement. "I thought you were never coming. Goodness! +what are you carrying two grips for? One is enough for me." Then, +without waiting for a reply, she raced on to another question. "And that +box! What's in it, Nan?" She gazed suspiciously at Nan's mischievous +face. "It looks like a lunch box. It never is!" + +"Yes, it ever is," mimicked Nan, in exactly Bess's tone, adding with a +laugh: "And Papa Sherwood very nearly ate all the nuts from the +sandwiches." + +"Nan----" began Mrs. Sherwood reproachfully; but at that moment Mrs. +Harley appeared in the doorway and the reproaches were forgotten. + +Momsey would not go inside, as the minutes to train time were getting +very few, so after a short disappearance Mrs. Harley joined them and +they started toward the station together. The two girls, Nan and Bess, +lead the way, swinging their bags and talking excitedly. + +"I'm almost scared to death," confided Bess, as they turned the corner +that led down to the station and the train that was to bear them so soon +on their wonderful journey. + +"Scared?" asked Nan, her eyes big with wonder. "What are you scared +about?" + +"Oh, I don't suppose I should call it exactly scared," retracted Bess. +"Just sort of excited and--and--nervous. Going all alone you know--and +everything." + +"This isn't the first time we have traveled alone," said Nan +practically. "And we have always come out 'right side up with care.'" + +"Oh, Nan, you _are_ so calm," sighed Bess in exasperation. "Won't +anything ever get you excited?" + +"Excited," repeated Nan, gazing in amazement at her chum. "I'm so +excited this very minute that I'm all thrilly inside." + +"If you are," said Bess, eyeing her judicially, "nobody would ever know +it. That's just the trouble with you," she added plaintively, "you are +always hiding things and having secrets from me when you know very well +that no one ought ever to have a secret from her chum." + +Nan put an arm about the waist of the girl and laughed. + +"You can't quarrel with me, especially this morning, Bess," she said, +adding soothingly: "Besides, I haven't had a secret from you in--oh, +ever so long. Not since Beautiful Beulah." + +For Bess had been very much put out indeed about Nan's secret possession +of Beautiful Beulah, the big doll that had formerly helped Nan over many +difficulties. + +"I know," said Bess, in answer to Nan's declaration. "But that is just +the reason why I expect you to start something. You have been 'too good +to be true.'" + +"Well, you are a silly," said Nan absently, as her eyes wandered down +the double line of shining rails to the spot where they disappeared in +the distance. "I wonder if that mean old train is going to be late after +all." + +"No, there it is! There it is, Nan!" cried Bess, suddenly dancing wildly +up and down the platform. "Oh, tell the folks to hurry. Mother has my +hat box. I never, never could go to Palm Beach without that hat." And +she ran back toward the older folks, waving her bag at them frantically +while Nan looked after her laughingly. + +"I wonder what Bess would do," she thought, without the slightest trace +of conceit, "if she didn't have me to anchor her down all the time." + +The train steamed into the station just as Momsey and Papa Sherwood and +Mrs. Harley, with the excited Elizabeth in the lead, rushed upon the +platform. + +Nan was very much surprised to find that though she had become used to +rather frequent partings with Momsey and Papa Sherwood, this one was not +one bit easier than the others had been. + +She hugged Papa Sherwood, kissed Momsey a dozen times, in spite of the +fact that Bess was tugging at her elbow, and finally stumbled some way +up the steps and into the car. + +"Goodness! Anybody would think you were going away to stay forever," +gasped Bess, as she tried to disengage herself from a tangle of bag and +hat box and umbrella. "For goodness' sake, look out, Nan. We are +moving." This, because Nan stuck her head far out of the window to get a +last look at the dear folks on the platform. + +"I know we're moving," sighed Nan, as she turned from the window and +began patiently to separate Bess from her belongings and stow the +articles away in the wire basket overhead. "I always have a funny +feeling as if I were leaving half of me behind every time I say good-bye +to Momsey and Papa Sherwood." + +"I should think you would be used to it by this time," said Bess, as +she removed her hat and fluffed out her pretty curls. "We certainly +can't complain of having to stay too much in one place." + +"I should say not!" exclaimed Nan, as she thought of how many wonderful +things had happened since that day when she had started out for the +great north woods with Uncle Henry. "But, oh, Bess," she added, turning +happy eyes upon her chum, "we never went on quite such a wonderful +journey as this--not even when we went to Rose Ranch." + +"It all comes of having such nice friends," replied Bess, taking out a +tiny hand mirror and regarding the tip of her nose critically. "And +friends with money," she added significantly. + +"Bess! How you talk!" cried the girl from Tillbury, turning a shocked +gaze upon her friend. For Nan Sherwood never failed to be shocked at +Elizabeth's very evident love of money and what it could buy. "If it +were only money we cared for we might have made friends with Linda +Riggs, I suppose. I heard her say something about going to Europe next +summer, and I shouldn't wonder if she would take Cora Courtney and one +or two more of her satellites with her. Perhaps if we had been very +good, she might have asked us." + +"Well, it would have been fun," said Bess, wickedly enjoying the shocked +look that deepened on Nan's face. "Cheer up, Nan," she added with one +of her sudden changes of mood. "You know very well how I hate Linda. +However," she continued, "I suppose we really ought to be grateful to +her now." + +"Grateful?" repeated Nan wonderingly. + +"For damaging the heating plant up at school, silly," explained Bess, +"and giving us a chance to go to Florida." + + + + + CHAPTER XV + + WE'RE OFF! + + +Nan could not help laughing at this speech of her chum's, and she turned +her chair about to face Bess. Nan did not like riding backward in a +train very much herself, but as Bess had declared she "simply couldn't +stand it," it was unselfish Nan, as usual, who did the unpleasant thing. + +But, the chair turned, as she sank down into its luxurious depth she +looked across gravely at her friend. + +"I don't see why you say that Linda did that awful thing up at school," +she said. "We haven't the slightest proof in the world that she was the +guilty one. That handkerchief you found didn't really prove anything." + +Bess sniffed as she reached over to open her bag and get out from among +its heterogeneous contents a box of sweets she had thoughtfully +remembered to slip in before she started. + +"Of course we don't know that she did it," she said, opening the box and +offering it to Nan. "But you know very well there isn't another girl in +the school who is mean enough to think of such a thing." + +"Y-yes," answered Nan doubtfully, as she pushed the candy over toward +its owner. "But on the other hand, I never thought Linda had nerve +enough to do anything like that. Why, she might have been dreadfully +hurt herself!" + +"Of course she didn't know that she was in danger," retorted Bess, with +a scornful little toss of her head. "She didn't have brains enough." + +"Just the same," said Nan decidedly, "I don't think we ought to accuse +her until we have something definite to go on." + +"Isn't that just like Nan Sherwood!" cried Bess, regarding her chum with +a mixture of fondness and irritation. "Always making excuses for +everybody! I suppose if we had caught Linda in the act, you would still +say it must have been somebody else." + +"Hardly as bad as that," said Nan, with a little laugh, adding, while a +cloud passed over her face: "Goodness knows I have more reason than any +of the rest of the girls for disliking Linda. She never accused any one +but me of stealing. I only hope," she added, "that we don't meet her +somewhere on this trip." + +"Goodness gracious, Nan!" cried Bess, fairly jumping from her seat in +surprise, "you don't expect to meet her, do you?" + +"If I did," said Nan ruefully, "I would get right off this train and go +back to Tillbury, much as I have counted on this trip. No, honey," she +added, laughing at her own extravagance, "there's no need of your +getting excited, for I have no idea that we shall meet Linda at Palm +Beach. Only she has the most disconcerting way of popping up in places +where you least expect her." + +"Well, all I have to say," returned Bess, biting fiercely into a fresh +chocolate and wishing it were Linda instead, "is that I wish you +wouldn't put such uncomfortable ideas into my head. Here I was just +about forgetting Linda, and you have to lug her into the limelight +again." + +Nan laughed merrily and helped herself to another of Bess's chocolates +without even so much as a "by your leave." + +"Cheer up," she said, with a chuckle, "I've done all the 'lugging' I'm +going to for a little while. And in the meantime," she added, her voice +thrilling with anticipation, "let's think of something really +pleasant--Palm Beach, for instance." + +"Now you are talking!" cried Bess approvingly. "I have to pinch myself +about every five minutes to realize that I'm really going there. I +wonder if it is really as gay as people say it is. That's where all the +actresses go, you know. And millionaires and authors----" + +"And bald-headed business men and fussy, over-dressed women," added Nan +demurely, her eyes twinkling at the look of horror that Bess turned upon +her. + +"Nan, how can you?" Bess burst out, as Nan had fully expected her to do. +"Bald-headed men, indeed! Do you suppose I have come all this way just +to see a lot of old bald-headed men?" + +"You haven't come yet," Nan reminded her, her eyes sparkling. "I didn't +say _all_ the men were bald-headed," she added, in an attempt to soothe +her outraged companion. "But dad says most of them are--especially the +millionaires." + +"Oh, how--how--dreadful!" stuttered Bess. "Why, all the millionaires I +ever saw had beautiful, leonine heads with shaggy manes of thick white +hair and strong, clearly cut chins----" + +"That's in the movies," Nan interrupted with a chuckle. "Papa Sherwood +says that if all the men had hair like the movie heroes they would have +to spend all their energy growing it and wouldn't have time to attend to +their brains. And then where would their millions be?" + +"Well," said Bess, unable to find an answer to this queer question, yet +still indignant, nevertheless, "you needn't go to work to spoil all my +illusions. I don't believe you have a speck of romance anywhere about +you, Nan Sherwood." + +"Maybe I haven't," Nan admitted cheerfully, without looking the +slightest bit worried about it. "But I expect to have lots of fun, just +the same. Oh, Bess, look out!" + +Bess, who had stood up to pull down the shade, jumped and looked about +at Nan wildly. + +"What's the matter?" she gasped. "Train on fire?" + +"No. But you almost sat on a chocolate," said Nan calmly, as she removed +the large and luscious sweet from Bess's seat. Bess stared at her +reproachfully and sank back into the chair. + +"You might just as well kill me as scare me to death," she said +reproachfully. + +For a while after that the happy girls forgot to talk and sat staring +contentedly out at the flying landscape while the train pounded on +heavily over the rails, singing its everlasting "catch 'em up, catch 'em +up, catch 'em up." + +Then suddenly Bess spoke, taking up the conversation where they had left +it. + +"If all we are going to find at Palm Beach is bald men and fussy women," +she said, "I must say I don't see how we are going to have much fun." + +"Oh, don't be such a silly," laughed Nan. "Of course we are going to +find something else. There's the ocean and the palm trees. They say the +scenery is perfectly gorgeous and the two big hotels wonderful, and +there'll be the crowds and crowds of people. And then we shall meet +Grace and Walter----" + +"And Walter," repeated Bess teasingly, then laughed at the other girl's +quick blush. + +"Now I know you are silly," said Nan crossly. "You know you are glad +Walter is going to be there." + +"Of course I am," admitted Bess with suspicious promptness. "Walter is +jolly good fun, especially when he has his _Bargain Rush_ with him. But +lately the rest of us girls--even Grace--have to hang on to his +coat-tails to keep him from going off alone with you. He doesn't seem to +know there's any one else around. Oh, you don't need to look so +surprised, Miss Innocence," she added, as Nan regarded her with +wide-open eyes. "You know it just as well as the rest of us." + +"Oh--oh--I never heard of such a thing!" cried Nan, and her amazement +was unfeigned. "I think you are perfectly horrid. Why, Walter has always +been lovely to all of us. And as to his going off with me alone--why, +that's nonsense, and you know it, Bess Harley!" Nan's amazement was +rapidly giving way to indignation. "Walter has never gone off anywhere +alone with me, never!" + +"I know he hasn't," admitted Bess, with a chuckle. "And for a very good +reason. We wouldn't let him." + +Nan stared for a minute. Then something surprisingly like tears filled +her eyes and she turned quickly to the window. + +"I don't think you are nice," she said in a low voice. "If Walter has +been any nicer to me than he has to any one else, I surely haven't +noticed it. And now you've gone and spoiled everything. I won't want to +go anywhere with him now just because I will be afraid you girls are +saying silly things. And Walter's such awfully good fun!" The last was +very much in the nature of a wail, and Bess's heart, which was never +very hard at any time, softened and she slipped over to Nan's chair and +put an arm about her chum. + +"Move over," she commanded. "It's lucky neither of us is very fat or we +couldn't both sit in one chair. That's right," as Nan obediently "moved +over" but still kept her face to the window. "Now say you forgive me for +being such an old bear. After all, honey," and she patted Nan's shoulder +soothingly, "I suppose it isn't your fault if Walter likes you best." + +Nan's shoulder moved impatiently. + +"But he doesn't," she insisted, staring out of the window. "It isn't +so." + +"All right," agreed Bess soothingly. But it was lucky Nan could not see +the twinkle in her eye. "Have it your own way, Nan. Only stop turning +your back to me. It isn't polite. And, oh!" she added, with a little +sigh, "I'm hungry." + +At this sudden and very unromantic change in the subject Nan laughed. +And as laughter and ill-temper never go hand in hand, it was not long +before Nan had forgotten all about Walter--almost. + +She produced the lunch box, and for once Bess was too ravenously hungry +to protest at the "commonness" of it, and they set to at its delicious +contents with a will. + +It was eight o'clock when they went into the sleeping car, as they had +been unable to secure a berth in Tillbury, and had had to telegraph +ahead to have one reserved on a coach which was attached to the train +further along the line. + +"This is more like it," said Nan, as they entered the sleeping car. +"I'll be glad enough to go to bed just as soon as we can see no more of +the scenery we are passing." + +"Who is to take the upper berth, you or I?" demanded her companion. + +"Maybe we had better toss up for it," said Nan. + +Just then the girls observed a lady on the opposite side of the aisle +telling the colored porter not to fix the upper berth at all, that she +and her daughter would both sleep below. + +"Let's do that," suggested Nan. + +"By all means," answered Bess; and so it was settled. + +"Lots o' folks don't use dat dar upper berth," explained the porter as +he fixed the lower bed only. "They leaves it up and dat gives 'em so +much more room to stand up an' dress an' undress." + +"It will just suit us," declared Bess. + +Soon the berth was ready and a little later the girls retired. + +Being together they had thought to have a good "talk-fest," as Bess +called it. But alas! both were so tired out that they fell asleep almost +before they knew it. And neither woke up until morning, when they were +rolling into New York City. + +"Gracious; time to get up!" and Nan lost no time in dressing and Bess +followed her example. + +The first part of their momentous journey had come to an end. + + + + + CHAPTER XVI + + FUN AND NONSENSE + + +In her impatience Bess Harley thought she had never known a crowd to +move so slowly. Of course all the people on the train were getting out +at New York, for the simple reason that the train did not go any +farther. + +At any other time the girls would have been tremendously pleased about +going to New York. But now, with the even more wonderful prospect of +Florida looming up, New York appealed to them simply as a means to an +end. + +"It's that fat man at the end," hissed Bess in Nan's ear. "He's holding +up the whole procession. What's he talking about, anyway?" + +"Sh-h," whispered Nan. "He may hear you. Are you sure you have +everything, honey?" she added, making a mental count of Bess's +belongings to make certain that her careless chum had left nothing +behind. + +"For goodness' sake, Nan Sherwood, I wonder you don't have a record made +of that question and then turn it on every five minutes or so," said +Bess, whose temper was beginning to be ruffled by the delay. "That's +all I hear from morning to night. 'Are you sure you have everything?' I +think I'll try it on you and see how you like it." + +"Oh, I'd love it," cried Nan, with such fervor that Bess looked at her +in surprise. "It's this bag," explained Nan, looking down at her own +handsome suitcase. "I'm certain it will be stolen or I'll lose it or +something before we can get to Florida." + +"Well, it is an expensive suitcase," Bess admitted, as the fat man at +the front of the car finished his argument with the conductor and the +line of passengers moved slowly on toward the door. "But you never used +to lie awake at night worrying about it." + +It was Nan's turn to look her amazement. + +"It isn't the bag I'm worrying about, and you ought to know that," she +said in a low voice. "It's what is in the bag." + +"Oh!" said Bess, suddenly remembering, "you mean those papers Mrs. +Bragley gave you? Well, I wouldn't worry about them," she added +carelessly. "I don't believe they are really worth anything, anyway." + +"Oh, hush," Nan begged her as they stepped upon the platform and a man +turned to look at them curiously. "Please don't mention any names, Bess. +It might make trouble." + +"Why, Nan Sherwood, how you talk!" cried Bess, turning to look +curiously at her chum. "You might really think those old papers were +worth something." + +"I believe they are," said Nan seriously, as, with bag clutched tightly +in her hand, she started with Bess down the long bustling platform. +"Anyway, I want to do my best to help the poor woman. I felt dreadfully +sorry for her." + +"I feel sorry for everybody who isn't going to Palm Beach," cried Bess +gaily, as she looked about her with sparkling eyes. "Oh, Nan, isn't this +a lark?" + +"You'd better look out," cried Nan sharply, as Bess stepped directly in +front of a heaped-up baggage truck that was being trundled heavily down +the platform, "or it will be a tragedy instead." + +The girls had supposed they had become accustomed to the noise and +confusion of a big city during their visit in Chicago, but as they +stepped from the great Pennsylvania Station on to the crowded New York +street they felt disconcertingly like startled country girls arriving in +the city for the first time. + +"Goodness! I thought Chicago was awful," whispered Bess in Nan's ear. +"But this is worse. What shall we do?" + +"That's easy," said Nan, taking command of the situation as usual. "Papa +Sherwood told me to take a taxi straight over to the dock and not to +speak to any one on the way." + +"Well, I think we'll have our choice of taxis," remarked Bess, with a +chuckle, as several chauffeurs standing by or sitting in cabs drawn up +along the curb espied the well-dressed girls and immediately set up a +cry of "Taxi, taxi! Right this way, lady!" + +Looking as if she had been used to riding around in taxicabs in strange +and noisy cities all her life, Nan walked forward, still clutching the +precious bag that held Mrs. Bragley's papers and calmly selected a +brilliant yellow cab whose driver opened the door to her respectfully. + +Bess followed, all eyes and ears for the noise and confusion of the +street. Nan gave instructions to the chauffeur, who touched his cap, +slammed the door shut on the girls and sprang to his seat in front. + +"I think you are just wonderful, Nan Sherwood," said Bess, when they +were gliding swiftly off through the bewildering traffic. "I was +frightened to death when all those men started shouting at us at once. I +wanted to run back into the station and hide. But _you_ didn't, and of +course _I_ didn't, and here we are!" She gave an excited little bounce +on the seat. "Only," she added reproachfully, "I don't see why you +picked out a yellow taxi. You know I hate yellow." + +"Goodness! I didn't even notice the color," said Nan, feeling her +suitcase with one foot to be sure it was still there. "If you will just +tell me what color you like best I'll send a note to the governor and +ask him to have them painted that way." + +"How sweet of you," mocked Bess, and a moment later grasped her chum's +arm in fright. "Did you see that?" she cried, as the driver put on his +brakes and they stopped within about two inches of the back of a great +lumbering truck. "I'm afraid this driver is going to kill us before ever +we can get to the dock." + +"Never mind, honey," said Nan soothingly, though she herself had been +considerably startled at the close call. "Papa Sherwood says all the +drivers are like that in New York, and yet there are very few accidents. +We must be near the dock, anyway." + +"Isn't that horrid?" cried Bess with one of her quick changes of +interest. "Just think, we'll have to go and leave New York before we +have really seen anything of it." + +Nan shrugged her shoulders helplessly. + +"I thought you weren't enjoying your ride," she said, "and here you are +bemoaning the fact that it is nearly over. Bess, I give you up." + +Bess merely chuckled, and a few minutes later insisted upon stopping the +machine while she got out and bought some oranges from a tempting +fruit-stand. + +"Now," she said, proudly exhibiting her purchase to Nan when the car was +once more bumping onward over cobblestones toward the dock, "we sha'n't +starve on our trip, anyway. Oh, look, Nan; we're there!" she cried, +pointing excitedly out of the window. "See that thing over there that +looks like something between a cave and a barn with a sign over it? That +must be the entrance to one of the docks. Yes, see the people going in? +And there's another and another. Oh, oh!" + +"For goodness' sake, sit still," commanded Nan. "You're spilling all the +oranges." + +"My, what a joy killer you are, Nan Sherwood," sighed Bess, as she +rebelliously stuffed the bag of oranges into her already over-filled +suitcase. "What are a few oranges more or less at a glorious time like +this?" + +Then the taxicab left the rough pavement and rolled along over the +smooth asphalt. On all sides of them were trucks and autos, with here +and there a horse-drawn vehicle. The noise was something awful. + +"Goodness gracious, how different from the quietness at the Hall!" +remarked Bess. + +"And how different even from Tillbury," returned Nan. + +"What a lot of foreigners here, Nan." + +"I guess they come from the ships. The docks are all along here, so I've +been told." + +"I wouldn't want to come down here after dark and all alone." + +"No, I'd not like that myself, Bess." + +"Some of those men look like regular Italian brigands." + +"Yes, and others look like Russian anarchists." + +Suddenly the machine came to a standstill and the man in front looked +about at Nan and repeated the instructions she had given him to make +sure he had them correctly. + +"That's right," answered Nan, nodding. "We must be almost there, aren't +we?" + +"Yes, Miss," said the man, as he started the car again. "See that dock +over yonder? That's it." And he swung the machine about in a semicircle +and headed for one of the openings which Bess had described as +"something between a cave and a barn." + +"Nan, I never felt so funny before," Bess confided to her chum. "I think +I am going to faint or something." + +"And I think you had better not," said Nan, in alarm. "I have all I can +do to carry my own luggage without having you piled on top of it." + +"You wouldn't have to carry me," giggled Bess incorrigibly. "I'd ask the +good-looking chauffeur to do it." + +"How could you ask him anything if you had fainted?" asked Nan, +beginning systematically to get her things together. "Hurry up, Bess. I +guess this is where we get off. Are you sure----" + +"You have everything?" finished the irrepressible Bess with another +giggle. "I was just waiting for that. Look out, Nan. You stepped on my +toe." + +"I know it," said Nan calmly. "I did it on purpose." + +Nan seized the opportunity to make good her escape, and Bess, following +close upon her heels, whispered dramatically in her ear: "Take care, +woman! You shall not again escape me. Next time I will spit thee like a +goose." + +"All right," said Nan, turning calmly to the driver who was waiting for +his fee. "Only wait a minute, will you? I have to pay the fare." + + + + + CHAPTER XVII + + THE MYSTERIOUS MEN + + +As the machine drove away several street urchins came running toward the +girls, begging the privilege of carrying their bags. Nan would have +refused, the bags being not at all heavy and the walk to the end of the +dock from the entrance not very far, but Bess nudged her sharply. + +"Go ahead," she urged. "I have a quarter to pay for it. Don't be a +silly." + +So Nan obeyed and reluctantly handed over to one of the eager street +urchins the handsome bag which contained, among other things, Mrs. +Bragley's papers. Bess had already loaded the small boy with her own +belongings, and it seemed impossible to Nan that the lad could be able +to carry it all. + +Yet he sauntered ahead quite cheerfully while the other boys turned away +disappointed to wait for the next arrival. + +As the girls emerged from the long, tunnel-like entrance into the bright +sunshine of the dock they quickened their steps instinctively. The +steamship _Dorian_, which was to carry them to Florida, was already +waiting for the passengers. + +Nan had never seen a harbor like this before, and she gazed with +fascinated eyes out over the glistening water, dotted thickly with craft +of all sizes and descriptions. + +There were a great many docks like the kind upon which she and Bess were +standing, and they stretched out into the harbor like so many legs of an +octopus, cleaving the brilliant water with dark ugly gashes. + +Over all the bustling harbor was a sense of feverish activity, of +mystery and romance, of adventuring in far, fair lands that set Nan's +blood atingle and made her breath come quickly. + +"What are you waiting for?" Bess asked impatiently, and Nan roused from +her reverie with a start. + +"I wasn't waiting, I was just looking," said Nan in a soft voice, as +they started up the gangplank that led to the deck of the _Dorian_. "I +never saw anything so wonderful." + +"Beg pardon, Miss," said a voice in her ear, and a small hand was laid +upon her arm. + +Nan turned quickly and saw that it was their small luggage carrier. In +their preoccupation the girls had both of them forgotten about their +precious bags. + +With quick fingers Nan fished in her purse for the necessary quarter, +gave it to the boy and received her bag in return. + +"Oh, Bess!" she cried as the boy tipped his cap and started on, "how +could I ever have done such a thing? Why, if I had lost this bag I never +would have dared face Mrs. Bragley again. Never in this wide world!" + +"I wish Mrs. Bragley were in Guinea," said Bess crossly. "She and her +old papers are just about going to spoil our trip. They are making you +as nervous as a cat." + +"Sh-h, Bess, not so loud," cautioned Nan, as they stepped upon the deck +of the _Dorian_ and handed over the tickets which Papa Sherwood had +secured for them. + +It was perhaps fortunate for the girls' peace of mind that they did not +notice two men who were closely behind them. One of the men was fat and +short and had little eyes and a bald head, which he was now mopping +vigorously with a rather soiled handkerchief. + +His companion was his complete opposite. He was tall and thin, with a +severe, straight line for a mouth and long, nervous hands, and had a +habit of caressing his beardless chin as though a beard had once grown +there. + +As the tall thin man, whom his companion called Jensen, overheard Nan's +startled reference to Mrs. Bragley's papers, he put a hand upon the fat +man's arm and nodded once with a sort of jerk of satisfaction. + +"What did I say, Davis?" he asked, in a carefully guarded voice. "I tell +you, I am never wrong." And his eyes followed the girls as they started +down the deck in the direction of their cabin. + +As they, in turn, stepped upon the deck, the short man looked up at his +tall companion and said rather enigmatically: "Sometimes I wonder, +Jensen, whether you are a great man, or a great fool. It's certainly +great to have them on this trip to Florida with us." + +Although the girls knew nothing of this strange conversation, Nan was +extremely careful to stow her bag away in a corner of their stateroom +and piled several things on it and about it so that it could not be +easily seen by curious eyes. + +"Nan, if you don't leave that old thing alone I'm going to throw it +overboard," Bess finally said complainingly. "You act as if it contained +diamonds and rubies instead of----" + +"Oh, please hush," said Nan, rising quickly from her knees and coming +over to Bess. "I don't know what has gotten into me lately, Bess dear," +she said, speaking so earnestly that her chum regarded her in surprise; +"but ever since I took charge of those papers I have had the strangest +impression that I am being watched." + +"Nan!" cried Bess, looking uneasily over her shoulder, "what a terrible +thing. But, of course, it's only imagination," she added easily, for it +was instinct with Bess to cast aside anything that threatened to worry +her or interfere with her fun. "I told you the old papers were getting +on your nerves." + +"You're right," said Nan, with a little sigh as she rose to take off her +coat and hat and straighten her hair before the tiny mirror. "They +certainly are getting on my nerves." + +"Well, for goodness' sake get them off then," commanded Bess, bouncing +impatiently on a berth. "I never saw such a girl to take everybody +else's troubles on her own shoulders. I'll be glad when you turn the +papers over to Mr. Mason." + +Nan smiled a resigned little smile at her reflection in the mirror. Then +she came over and put an arm about her pouting chum. + +"All right," she promised gaily, "I won't ever do it again. Only come on +and smile, honey. If you knew how pretty you look when you do, you would +never do anything else." + +There are very few girls who can withstand an appeal like that, and Bess +was not one of them. A smile replaced the frown immediately and the next +minute she was chatting merrily about their crowded little stateroom and +the two narrow berths, one above the other, wondering with a grimace +whether they would be seasick or not, and so, on and on, till Nan's +momentary depression forsook her and she felt again the thrill that had +quickened her blood as they had stood on the dock, gazing out over the +harbor. + +Yet, almost unknown to Nan herself, there lingered in the back of her +mind a strange, uneasy premonition of trouble to come, and again and +again her eyes sought the spot where the bag with Mrs. Bragley's papers +stowed safely inside lay hidden. + +"I wonder which one of us is going to take the upper berth," Bess +chattered gaily on. "You had better, Nan, because you're thinner than I. +And then if the berth should cave in it wouldn't hurt you so much +because there would be something soft to fall on. It's a snug little +place, isn't it?" + +"Snug is right," said Nan, with a giggle. "You can't turn around without +running in to something." + +"That's Linda's fault. She shouldn't have wrecked the heating system at +school in the Palm Beach season. If it had been in December now, or +March, there wouldn't have been such a crowd and we could have had a +real honest to goodness stateroom, instead of this two-by-one hole in +the wall." + +"Elizabeth, how shocking," laughed Nan. "You must have been taking +lessons from Walter." And then, for no apparent reason at all, or +perhaps because of the expression in her chum's eyes as they rested +upon her, Nan became suddenly confused and hurriedly changed the +subject. + +"Let's go outside," she suggested, rising and making toward the door of +the stateroom, which opened directly out upon the deck. "It--it's +awfully hot in here." + +Bess laughed tantalizingly and stretched lazily as she prepared to +follow her chum. + +"Nan, honey," she drawled, irrelevantly, or so it seemed to Nan, "you +are a darling, but, oh, you're awfully foolish." + + + + + CHAPTER XVIII + + A STARTLING REVELATION + + +It was a wonderful journey, that one to Jacksonville, and one the girls +never forgot. At first the weather was unpleasant, cold and blowy, but +toward the afternoon of the second day the gentle winds of the south +fanned them with their welcoming breath, and heavy wraps began to feel +burdensome. + +At first the girls had been afraid that they would become seasick and +had wondered what they would do should such a weakness overtake them. + +"I know I'll just lie down and die, if I get sick on this steamer," Bess +had declared. + +"Oh, no, you won't, Bess," Nan had made reply. "You'll do as everybody +else has to--grin and bear it." + +"But to be sick on a ship that is rolling and pitching all the time----" + +"You can keep in your berth, you know." + +"There is no fun in that." + +"Then go on deck--and make an exhibition of yourself." + +"Nan Sherwood, I think that, on occasion, you are utterly heartless." + +"So are you." + +"Oh, I see. Trying to get square for what I said about Walter Mason." + +"Not at all. I am only----" + +But there Nan had had to stop, for a sudden lurch of the steamer had +thrown her against the wash-stand. Bess had gone sprawling on the floor. + +"I--I didn't think it would be so rough," Bess had gasped out, on +arising. + +"I--I don't think it is going to be so awful bad," Nan had declared. And +she had been right. By noon of the second day the sea was quite smooth. +Neither of the girls felt a bit of seasickness and both were glad to go +on deck and enjoy the sunshine. + +"What a change since yesterday," said Bess, as the two girls stood by +the rail looking out over the lazily rolling water. "It seems almost +like magic, doesn't it?" + +"It's wonderful," breathed Nan happily. "It seemed so silly to pack all +my summer things when the wind was blowing like mad and it was ten above +zero in Tillbury. But now I'm mighty glad we did. Whew, isn't this coat +warm!" + +"Cheer up," cried Bess gaily. "Maybe by to-night it will be so warm we +can put all our winter things in storage and blossom out in silk +georgette and white flannels like veritable butterflies from a +crystal--I mean chrysalis. Nan, are you listening to me?" she demanded +severely, for Nan's eyes had deserted the long line of lazy combers and +were following the figures of two men, one long and one short, who were +strolling slowly down the deck. + +"Bess, do you see those men?" asked Nan, with a troubled inflection that +caused Bess to look at her sharply. + +"Yes, my dear," she answered. "My eyes are still in good working +condition." + +"Does there seem anything strange about them?" Nan insisted. "Anything +like spying?" + +Bess jumped and regarded the back of her chum's head reproachfully. + +"For goodness' sake, Nan!" she cried, "you are never going to start that +all over again, are you? I thought you had got over that silly notion +you had of being followed." + +"I wish it were only a notion, Bess," said the girl, turning such a +serious face to her chum that for once even careless Bess was sobered. + +"Why, Nan, what do you mean?" she asked. "You can't mean that there is +really somebody spying upon you!" + +"That's just what I do mean," said Nan soberly. "I didn't want to worry +you, Bess, so I didn't tell you. But something happened last night----" +She stopped suddenly, for the two men were coming back again, apparently +absorbed in conversation. + +[Illustration: Nan's eyes were following the figures of two men +strolling down the deck. (_See page 140_)] + +Presently the tall man and his short companion passed and as they did so +Nan gave each a searching look. The men did not happen to see the girls, +and soon were out of sight around a turn. + +"I am almost sure they are the same," murmured Nan and her face was a +study. + +"Nan, you talk in riddles!" cried her chum. "What does it mean?" + +"I'll tell you, Bess, even though I don't want to frighten you still +more." + +And thereupon Nan related how she had seen two strange men near her home +and at the local drugstore and the railroad station, and how one had +stepped up as if to speak to her and then hurried away. + +"I am almost sure they are the same, and, oh, Bess, one of them has such +an awful look in his eyes! I am sure they cannot be at all nice." + +"Humph! That is certainly strange," murmured Bess. "I guess those chaps +will bear watching. What can they be up to, do you think--watching your +house and following you like that?" + +"I haven't finished. Last night----" + +"Oh, yes, you started to tell about last night. Go ahead--oh, it's so +exciting--just like a movies!" + +"You remember we went down to the dining-room together," Nan went on in +a low tone, "and I suddenly remembered that we had forgotten to lock the +door. I was a little frightened, for I thought of Mrs. Bragley's papers +and our jewelry, and I almost ran back. + +"Just as I opened the door," Nan's voice quickened with excitement and +Bess leaped forward eagerly, "I saw a shadow on the glass of the other +door--the one that opens upon the deck." + +"Why, Nan! are you sure?" gasped Bess, catching herself up quickly to +add, "Never mind. Don't bother to answer me. What happened next?" + +"Well, for a minute I just stood there," said Nan, her eyes searching +nervously for the reappearance of the two men on deck. "I guess I was +just too surprised or frightened to speak, for the shadow on the door +was that of a man, and he was trying the door!" + +"Oh, Nan, what did you do?" demanded her wide-eyed chum. "I should just +have screamed and run away." + +"A lot of good that would have done," said Nan, a little contemptuously. +"I wanted to scream, but I didn't think of running away." + +"Of course you wouldn't," said Bess humbly. "But go on, Nan. What did +you do?" + +"I threw a bathrobe over my grip in the first place," said Nan. "I had +left it standing out in the room. And then I pulled the door open just +as the man started to open it from the outside." + +"Oh, Nan!" cried Bess again. "Then he really meant to come in?" + +"Of course he did--although he said he didn't," said Nan grimly. "When I +pulled the door open suddenly and stood looking at him he acted as if I +was a ghost or something. He did for a minute, that is. Then he +straightened up and sort of put on a smile--you know, the way you would +put on a coat to cover up a soiled dress or something----" + +"Why, Nan, I never----" Bess began indignantly, then interrupted herself +again. "Never mind me," she begged. "You've got me so excited that I +don't know just what I'm saying. What happened then, Nan? Didn't you say +something?" + +"Of course I said something," returned Nan. "I asked him what he was +doing at my stateroom door and what he wanted." + +"What did he say?" whispered Bess, her eyes wide in wonder. + +"He said that he was very sorry. That he thought this was his stateroom. +That he wouldn't have startled me for the world. And then he bowed +himself out and I slammed the door after him." + +"But, Nan," Bess had regained her breath again and felt in the mood for +an argument, "how do you know that the man really hadn't made a mistake? +I suppose it would be easy enough to get mixed up." + +"Bess, that man didn't make any mistake," said Nan Sherwood with such +conviction in her voice that once more Bess was startled. + +"How do you know?" + +"He was the meanest man I ever saw--his looks I mean," said Nan, +apparently not noticing her chum's interruption. "If you could have seen +him as I opened the door, you would feel just the way I do. He had +probably seen us going down to dinner and thought it was a good chance +to get into the stateroom and steal----" + +"Steal!" gasped poor Bess, for Nan was getting her pretty thoroughly +frightened. "You mean he was a thief, Nan?" + +"Of course," Nan returned impatiently. "I don't suppose honest men are +in the habit of sneaking into empty staterooms." + +"But if it was a mistake----" Bess interrupted, grasping at a straw. + +"It wasn't any mistake," Nan repeated gravely. "If he had thought it was +his own door, he would have opened it quickly. He wouldn't have been so +slow and cautious about it." + +"But, Nan! what could he have wanted to steal from us? It isn't as +though we had one of those handsome staterooms down below that cost a +fortune to hire even for a night. We haven't anything so very valuable." + +"Except Mrs. Bragley's papers," said Nan grimly. "I wonder you didn't +think of them." + +"Oh!" said Bess. "The papers! Yes, of course there were the papers. Why, +Nan," she turned upon her chum excitedly, "do you really suppose they +can be as important as that? Why, I never dreamed----" + +"I know you didn't. But I did," said Nan decidedly. She then added under +her breath as the two men turned a corner and again headed down the deck +toward them: "Don't say anything. Wait until these men have passed and +then look at them, the tall, thin one in particular." + +Bess was about to exclaim, but Nan silenced her with a look and they +waited quietly while the strangers once more sauntered past them. +Evidently they were taking a prolonged constitutional about the deck. + +Bess stole a quick glance at them and then turned back to her chum. + +"They are the same men who passed us just a little while ago," she said +with a puzzled frown. + +"Yes. And one of them, the tall, thin one with a slit for a mouth, is +the man who tried to enter our stateroom," said Nan earnestly. "I'm just +telling you this so that you will be more careful to lock our stateroom +door whenever you go in or out." + +"Goodness--Gracious--Agnes!" gasped Bess, mimicking Procrastination +Boggs in her agitation. "You are actually making me nervous, Nan +Sherwood. Lock the door, indeed! As if we were afraid of being murdered +in our beds! Why, I sha'n't sleep a wink to-night. I never heard of such +a thing." + +"You needn't look at me as if I were to blame," said Nan with spirit. "I +didn't ask that horrid thin thing and his little fat friend to follow us +all over and nearly give me heart failure. I'll be glad when this trip +is over, I'll tell you that." + +"So will I," said Bess morosely. "But I'll be gladder still when you get +rid of those old papers of Mrs. Bragley's--if that is what they are +after." + +"The one thing that makes me feel good," said Nan thoughtfully, as if +speaking to herself, "is that the papers must be worth something or +these horrid men wouldn't be so anxious to get them back. Maybe we shall +find that poor Mrs. Bragley is a rich woman yet." + +"Either that, or else that we have made a big mistake and the men are +not after the papers at all." + +"But if not after the papers, what?" + +"I don't know." + + + + + CHAPTER XIX + + AN ATTEMPTED THEFT + + +That night the girls were very careful to lock both doors and Bess even +went to the length of suggesting that they pile some furniture against +them. + +"It might be a good idea," Nan had replied, laughing at her, "if there +were only some furniture to pile. What are you doing, Bess? You aren't +stuffing cotton in the keyhole?" + +"You needn't laugh, Miss Smarty," Bess had retorted, straightening up +defiantly with a large wad of the cotton still in her hand and a +telltale tuft of it protruding from the keyhole. "I'm not going to have +any skinny old man with a funny mouth looking in at me while I sleep, I +can tell you! Nan Sherwood," she added threateningly, as Nan went off +into a gale of uncontrollable mirth, "if you don't stop laughing, I'll +stuff the rest of this cotton down your throat, and I just hope you'll +choke." + +"Oh, Bess! Elizabeth Harley!" gasped Nan. "You look so foolish standing +there with that wad of cotton in your hand. And the keyholes look as if +they had the earache. Oh, oh!" and she went off again into half +hysterical laughter. + +Bess, after staring at her a minute, gave up all attempt at being +dignified and joined in merrily. + +"Goodness! you would make an Egyptian mummy laugh, Nan Sherwood," said +Bess, as she wiped away the tears of mirth. "Who ever heard of keyholes +having the earache! Just the same," she added more soberly, as she +started to unfasten her dress, "you have got me terribly worried about +those men. I know I'll dream of them all night." + +"Oh, no, you won't," said Nan serenely, as she set about the business of +undressing. Then she added, with a chuckle: "I feel perfectly safe now +that the keyholes are stuffed!" + +It was not long after this that the two girls laid down to sleep. But +Nan was restless and could hardly close her eyes. + +"Those old papers," she murmured to herself. "I should have turned them +over to Mr. Mason, or put them in the ship's safe. I don't see why I +make myself keep them, unless it is that I want to prove to myself that +I have _some_ backbone." + +Presently she heard Bess breathing heavily, showing her chum was in the +land of slumber, and then gradually she dozed off. + +Nan had been asleep about an hour when she awoke with a start. + +She had heard a noise, of that she felt certain--a noise out of the +ordinary and not connected with the running of the ship. + +What was it? Was somebody trying the door? + +She turned over and, feeling for the push button, turned on the electric +light. This move awakened Bess. + +"What's the matter, are you sick?" asked the latter. + +"No. I--I heard something--it woke me up," Nan replied and got to her +feet. + +"Maybe those men----" + +"Hush! If they are outside the door they may hear you, Bess." + +With caution the two girls tiptoed to first one door and then the other +and peered out. + +In the cabin only a porter sleeping in an armchair was to be seen, while +out on the deck not a soul was in sight. + +"You must have been dreaming, Nan," said Bess, yawning. "Come, let us +try to get some more rest before morning." + +Nan was not satisfied and looked all around the stateroom, thinking a +mouse might be wandering around. But no mouse was found, and at last +both girls retired again. But Nan did not sleep very well and was glad +when the rising sun proclaimed another day at hand. + +Nan, swinging one bare foot experimentally over the edge of her berth, +felt it caught and held tight by an invisible hand. She peered over the +edge of the berth at the imminent risk of falling over herself and +breaking her neck, and found, as she had expected, that Bess was her +captor. The latter was holding on to her foot with one hand and rubbing +her eyes sleepily with the other. + +"Say, let go my foot," Nan hailed her inelegantly. "Haven't you got +enough of your own that you have to steal one of mine?" + +"You talk as if we were centipedes," said Bess, releasing Nan's foot and +sitting up grumpily in the berth. "I told you I wouldn't sleep a wink +last night, and I didn't." + +"You aren't the only one," said Nan, as she swung her other foot over +the edge of the berth and felt gingerly for a footing on the one below. +"I didn't sleep very well myself. But never mind," she added, as she +slipped safely to the floor, unharmed by her perilous descent. "We'll +forget all about such little things as sleepless nights when we get out +on deck. Have you forgotten that we reach Florida to-day?" + +Bess stared at her a minute, then scrambled quickly out of bed and began +pulling on her clothes hastily, getting them awry in her eagerness to +get dressed in the shortest time possible. + +"Gracious, Nan," she cried reproachfully, as she began to drag the comb +impatiently through her tumbled curls, "you scared me so with those men +and Mrs. Bragley's horrible papers that I forgot everything else. Fancy! +A few hours more and we shall be in Florida!" + +Immediately this thought put all other thoughts to flight in the mind of +careless but lovable Bess Harley, and she would have left the door of +their stateroom wide open had not Nan reminded her to close it and turn +the key in the lock. + +The girls ate breakfast hurriedly, and when they came out on deck it was +after eight o'clock. That gave them just time to pack their few +belongings before the _Dorian_ steamed up the St. Johns River into the +busy harbor of Jacksonville. + +Bess's prediction had come true. Over night the weather had become so +delightfully mild that heavy clothing was not only unnecessary, but very +uncomfortable, and the girls had donned white suits and white hats with +stockings and shoes to match. They were looking distinctly +attractive--and knew it. At least Bess did. And it must be admitted that +even modest Nan had been surprised and not a little pleased by her +radiant reflection in the tiny mirror in their stateroom. + +And now, though they knew that the last minute packing should be done +first, they still lingered by the rail, gazing over the brilliantly calm +water to where the tropically beautiful Florida coast stood out boldly +against the skyline. + +"What wonderful, wonderful weather!" sighed Nan, as they finally +deserted the rail and made their way through the excited crowd--for +nearly every one on board the _Dorian_ had come out on deck, clad in +white flannels and other summery attire, eager to get their first +glimpse of Florida--and on toward their stateroom. + +Suddenly Nan clutched her friend's arm and pointed excitedly. + +"Look!" she cried in a low voice. "The tall man! He's there with the fat +one in front of our door. And, Bess, look! He has something in his hand. +It's a key!" + +"Oh, Nan!" gasped Bess, "he would never dare. Not in this crowd!" + +"Come on!" ejaculated Nan tensely, as she elbowed and pushed her way +through the crowd. + +The two girls were almost upon the thin man and his companion before +they were discovered. Then the fat man nudged his friend sharply, and +before the girls could blink the men had slipped around the corner of +the cabin and were lost to view among the crowd. + +"Let's go after them," cried Bess excitedly. "We mustn't let them get +away from us, Nan. Why, they were trying to get into our room. I saw +them." + +"Oh, Bess, hush," begged Nan as several people turned to look at the +girls curiously. "Come inside a minute. I want to talk to you." + +She opened the door and half pushed, half dragged the excited Bess +inside the stateroom where the latter sank upon the berth and stared at +her friend indignantly. + +"You've gone and let them get away," she accused her hotly. "And that +ugly thin man was trying to get in. We saw him." + +"I know all that," said Nan a trifle impatiently. For several days her +nerves had been under a considerable strain and the effort to think and +act for Bess as well as herself was beginning to tell on her. "It +wouldn't have done us the slightest good in the world to have gone after +him. We never could have found him." + +"But we can at least tell the captain," returned Bess, jumping to her +feet impatiently. "I never saw a girl like you, Nan. I really believe +you intend to let him get away." + +"Well, what else can I do?" asked Nan quietly. "If I go to the captain +and tell him I found a couple of men standing in front of my door and +that I want them arrested, he will think that I'm crazy." + +"But they had a key! They were trying to get in! We saw them!" insisted +Bess, pacing excitedly up and down the small stateroom. + +"I know we did," said Nan patiently. "But the captain could never arrest +the men on such evidence. He would want proof. And you know as well as I +do that we haven't any." + +"We-el," said Bess irresolutely, sitting down on the edge of the berth +and staring blackly at the opposite wall, "I suppose you are right, Nan +Sherwood. You usually are. But I do know one thing." She stirred +impatiently and mechanically straightened her pretty white hat. "And +that is that I won't enjoy myself one bit till we make those men stop +following us around and trying to get into our room with skeleton keys. +I suppose that is what he had. Oh, dear, it does seem as if something +were always happening to take the joy out of life!" + +Nan ventured a shaky little laugh at this and began automatically +picking up her things and stuffing them into her bag. + +"You had better get ready, Bess," she advised. "We shall reach +Jacksonville in a little while. We don't want to be left behind." + +"I should say not!" said Bess vehemently. "I wouldn't stay on this old +boat another night after what happened this morning--not for anything. I +hope," she added, as she slammed her brush into her suitcase, "that we +sha'n't see any more of those horrid men after we once get on shore." + +"I hope we sha'n't." Nan echoed the wish fervently, but in her heart she +was very sure that they had not seen the last of the tall, thin man and +his chubby companion. + +That they were after the papers that had been entrusted to her care by +poor, confiding Sarah Bragley, she had little doubt. And the fact that +whoever these men were, they were desperately anxious to recover the +papers showing the widow's title to the tract of land in Florida, +fostered Nan's belief that the property must be of considerable value +and automatically strengthened her determination to hold on to the +papers at all cost. + +She was so engrossed with her own thoughts that Bess had to speak to her +twice before she could bring her back to a realization of the present. + +"Hurry up," she cried, handing Nan her suitcase and fairly pushing her +out on the deck. "From the noise everybody is making, I guess we're +there. For goodness' sake, Nan!" she exclaimed as her chum switched her +suitcase from one hand to the other, so that it would be between Bess +and herself, "don't bump that bag into me--especially right behind the +knees. You are apt to make me sit down suddenly." + +"You couldn't. There's too much of a crowd," laughed Nan, then added in +a lower tone, while her eyes nervously searched the crowd about her: +"Please help me to look out for my bag, honey. I'm awfully afraid I +might lose it." + + + + + CHAPTER XX + + THOSE MEN AGAIN + + +The two girls saw nothing more of the men who had played such a +mysterious part in their trip, and before they had started, with +hundreds of other gaily dressed people, down the gangplank of the +_Dorian_ they had almost forgotten their strange adventure. + +Nor, under the circumstances, could this be wondered at. All about them +was the bustle and excitement that is always attendant upon going +ashore. + +Every one was in hilarious holiday mood, and Nan and Bess would have +been queer indeed if they had not entered into the spirit of the day +with all their hearts. + +"I just can't keep my feet still," Bess confided to her chum, as they +filed slowly down the gangplank. "Isn't this the most wonderful day you +ever saw in your life, Nan? Just think, this kind of weather in +_February_! It does me good," she added, her eyes sparkling, "to think +of all the other girls at home going around with furs on and thick coats +and complaining of the cold. Oh, how I wish I could see them now." + +"Elizabeth! what a mean disposition," said Nan demurely, adding with a +twinkle in her eyes, while she tried hard to keep her feet from +fox-trotting away with her down the gangplank: "Though I would like to +send a little note to Linda and tell her to be careful not to go out in +the cold. It might make her nose red. Oh, Bess, look down there!" She +leaned forward suddenly, her eyes shining with eagerness. "Isn't that +Grace? And Walter----" + +"And Rhoda! Yes, it is, and they are waving to us," cried Bess eagerly. +"Of course Grace and Walter said they would be here to meet us, but I +was afraid they never would find us in all this crowd." + +Someway the girls got down to the dock, were hugged by Grace and Rhoda, +greeted hilariously by Walter, and were hustled, out of breath, through +the crowd that thronged about them. + +"How in the world did you get here, Rhoda?" demanded Nan, when she could +get a chance to ask the question. + +"I thought I'd surprise you," declared the girl from Rose Ranch. "I +fixed it all up with Grace and told her not to say a word." + +"It's grand!" declared Nan, beaming. + +"The best ever," added Bess. "Oh, what grand times we girls are going to +have!" + +"Sure we are going to have a grand time," said the girl from Rose +Ranch. "I think I deserve it, after all the trouble I've been through." + +"What do you suppose, she was in a railroad wreck," burst out Grace. "A +real, live-to-goodness wreck, too." + +"Oh, Rhoda, were you injured?" cried Nan quickly. + +"Just a few scratches--on my left elbow and my shins. But it was a close +call, I can tell you." + +"Where was it?" asked Bess. + +"Out in Connecticut. I went there to visit a distant relative of my dad. +It was a little side line and our train ran into a freight. We knocked +open a car full of chickens and what do you think? Those chickens +scattered far and wide. I'll bet many a family is having chicken dinner +on the sly this week!" + +"Then nobody was hurt?" + +"Oh, yes, several were more or less bruised and one man had an arm +broken. But everybody was thankful, for they said it might have been +much worse. But it certainly was funny to see those chickens scattering +in every direction over the snow-covered fields," and Rhoda laughed at +the recollection. + +"Gee, if a fellow had been there with a gun he might have had some +hunting," cried Walter. + +"Oh, Walter, you wouldn't hunt chickens with a gun, would you?" asked +Nan, reproachfully. + +"Don't know as I would," was the quick reply. + +"Oh, but now we are together, won't we have lovely times," cried Bess. + +"The very best ever," echoed Nan. + +"Going to let me out?" demanded Walter. + +"No, indeed, Walter, you are included." + +The girls and Walter continued to compare notes, when all of a sudden +Rhoda uttered a cry. + +"Girls, am I seeing a ghost?" she asked, staring straight ahead of her +toward a group of richly dressed people who were talking and laughing +together. "Or is that Linda Riggs?" + +"Goodness, don't say it, Rhoda!" cried Bess in dismay. "It can't be +Linda!" + +But it was! For at that moment the youngest of the much over-dressed +women in the group turned with a laugh to speak to someone behind her, +and the girls found themselves face to face with their schoolgirl enemy, +Linda Riggs. + +For all their dislike of the girl, the chums would have spoken to her. +But Linda stared at them coolly for a second, and then deliberately +turned her back upon them and began to speak to a tall, gray-haired man +at her right, who the girls instinctively felt must be her father, the +railroad president. + +"Those young ladies seemed to know you, my dear," they heard the tall +man say to Linda, as, flushed and indignant, the girls and Walter +pressed on through the crowd. + +"They do," they heard Linda answer contemptuously, and with no attempt +to lower her voice. "But I prefer not to know them--especially that +Sherwood girl." + +What the tall man said in answer, the girls could not hear, for they +were once more engulfed in a sea of chattering humanity whose din +swallowed up all individual sound. + +Impulsive Bess wanted to turn back and tell "that horrible Riggs girl" +what she thought of her, but Nan put an arm about her angry chum and +hurried her on. + +"But, Nan, I don't see how you can stand such things and never say a +word," cried Bess, indignantly. "I do believe you haven't any spirit. I +never could take an insult like that so calmly." + +"I'm not a bit calm," replied Nan, gripping her bag fiercely. "Right +this minute, I'd like to get hold of Linda Riggs and tear her hair out +by the roots." + +"Why didn't you do it then?" demanded excited Bess, and at this query +even Walter, who had been more incensed than any of the girls at the +insolent speech of Linda's, had to laugh. + +"Yes, I would look pretty, wouldn't I?" laughed Nan, all her wrath +vanishing on the instant, although her dislike of purse-proud Linda was +more real than ever, "announcing my arrival in Jacksonville by a street +fight?" + +"You would look pretty any way--even pulling Linda's hair out," laughed +Walter in her ear. + +"Please don't be foolish, Walter," returned Nan loftily, at which, for +some unaccountable reason, Walter only chuckled the more. + +The speech and the chuckle troubled Nan. It seemed in some ridiculous +fashion to bear out the silly things Bess had said about her and Walter +earlier in the trip. + +She forgot all about her perplexity a few moments later, however, when +Walter helped Nan and Bess and Grace into the roomy tonneau of his big +car, put Rhoda in the front seat, squeezed himself in behind the wheel, +and started the motor. + +"Well, how do you like Jacksonville, girls?" he called back to them as +the machine glided easily forward. "As good as Tillbury, is it?" he +added, with a glance at Nan and Bess. + +"Not nearly," answered Bess loyally, although in her heart she knew that +they could put two or three Tillburys in Jacksonville and never miss +them. + +The girls had known in a rather vague way that Jacksonville was a big +place, but they had never expected to see anything like the bustling, +thriving, wide-awake city they now drove through. + +"Why, it is almost as noisy and crowded as New York," said Bess, +wide-eyed, as Walter skilfully threaded his way through the heavy +traffic. "And we thought that was simply awful. Walter, please be +careful." + +"Don't worry," Walter sang back, grazing the rear wheel of another +machine by the very narrowest margin possible. "If we did hit anything, +we wouldn't be the ones to get hurt. This old bus could stop an express +train." + +"Maybe it could," retorted Bess. "But please try it some time when you +are alone." + +"Don't mind him," said Grace, with her quiet smile. "You know Walter +never does all he says." + +"Don't I though----" Walter was beginning, when his sister cut him off +by turning eagerly to Nan and Bess. + +"We're stopping at the Hampton," she said, the Hampton being one of the +largest and most important of all the large and important hotels in +Jacksonville. "Mother has engaged a perfectly lovely room for you girls. +Rhoda and I room together. It is just for one night, you know, for we +are going to take the train for Palm Beach to-morrow morning." + +"Then," cried Nan, happily, "we shall have all the rest of to-day to do +as we please in." + +"What bliss," breathed Bess. "Walter, you are going to be a perfect +angel, aren't you, and take us for a lovely long, long ride?" + +"At your service, fair damsel," said Walter gallantly. "We were planning +that anyway," he went on to explain. "Mother and dad thought they would +like to come along, too." + +"More bliss," cried Bess, adding, as a cloud suddenly darkened her face: +"I do hope we don't run across Linda any more. I declare, if I ever hear +her say another word against you, Nancy Sherwood, I shall just have to +kill her, that's all." + +"Well, I must say I do wish she would stay home where she belongs," said +Nan with a troubled frown. "Wherever we go she seems sure to turn up and +spoil everything--or try to. I wonder if Cora is with her," she added. +"I didn't see her at the dock." + +"Humph, you don't think she would be at the dock, do you?" asked Walter, +joining in the conversation. "Cora is a regular lady's maid to Linda +now, so Grace says. She must be a funny kind of girl to stand for that +sort of thing." + +"Oh, Cora isn't so bad," said Nan. "I imagine she would like to break +away from Linda, but she doesn't know just how to do it. Is this where +we get out, Walter?" she asked, as the car slowed down before a building +that looked more like a palace than a hotel. + +"This is where we get out," replied Walter, jumping from his seat and +running around to open the door for the girls. "Right this way, ladies. +Follow me and you'll wear diamonds. Here, boy!" he spoke to a loitering +colored boy who stood at the hotel entrance. "Carry these grips up to +three-twenty. The hat boxes, too. I suppose you want the hat boxes," he +said, turning to the girls with a grin. + +"Well, I should say!" replied Bess. "Neither Nan nor I would ever smile +again if we should lose one of those hats. Would we, Nan?" + +But Nan was looking behind her with startled eyes and never even heard +her friend's question. + +"Walter!" she cried, grasping the boy's arm and pointing excitedly down +the street, "do you see those men over there getting out of that taxi? +Quick! They are turning into that hotel." + +"The little fat fellow and the long, thin man?" asked Walter, with a +mystified line between his brows. "What about them? Friends of yours?" + +"Take a good look at them," Nan cried, impatiently shaking his arm, +while Grace and Rhoda looked on in amazement. "If you should see them +again, I want you should know them." + + + + + CHAPTER XXI + + THE BEGINNING OF ROMANCE + + +Walter was frankly bewildered by this time. But he obediently took a +long look at the short, fat man and the long, thin one. Then, as they +disappeared around a corner, he turned back to Nan and led her toward +the hotel entrance. + +"Why, Nan, you are trembling," he said, as they followed the colored boy +through a handsome courtyard and between rows of beautiful palm trees. +"I never knew you to be like this before. What's the matter? If either +of those men have bothered you," he added, glowering fiercely, "I'll +wring their necks." + +Nan gave a funny little hysterical laugh at this, and the laugh helped +to steady her after the shock she had had at the unexpected reappearance +of the two men. + +"I don't want you to wring anybody's neck," she said, as they passed +through another big door and stopped before an elevator. "Only please, +Walter," she looked up at him appealingly, "watch out for them and let +me know if you see them again. They are following us." + +Walter's bewilderment was beginning to change to alarm, and he would +have demanded to know all about the strange affair at once, had not the +three girls come up to them at that minute. + +On the ride up to the third floor of the hotel, where the room engaged +for Nan and Bess was located, Grace reminded Nan of nothing so much as a +human interrogation mark. + +She fairly besieged the girl from Tillbury with questions, which would +have been very embarrassing to poor Nan had not Rhoda interposed in her +behalf. + +"I don't suppose Nan wants to tell us about it now, Grace," she said. +"Let's wait till we get upstairs." + +Whereupon Grace was silenced temporarily. As for Bess, she was nearly as +disturbed as her chum, and the journey up to the third floor seemed +interminable. + +They reached it, however, and the girls stepped out into a handsome +corridor and were preceded by the velvet-footed bellboy past +interminable closed doors, to be stopped finally before one particular +door, closed like the rest, but evidently belonging, for the space of a +day and night at least, to Nan and Bess. + +Walter dismissed the boy with a tip, and, drawing a long key from his +pocket, inserted it in the door. A moment more and they had stepped into +a beautiful room, all blue and gold, and with deep, lacily curtained +windows and twin beds set over in one corner, with a small table and a +reading lamp beside each one. + +If the girls had not been used to handsome surroundings, the beauty of +the room might have overwhelmed them a little. As it was, they were +merely delighted. + +Walter set the bags and hat boxes inside the door for them, and then +turned to Nan, who was regarding her own particular bag with a disturbed +little frown. + +"I don't know what the matter is, Nan," he said in a low voice. "But if +there is anything about those men you don't like I'll see that they +don't worry you." + +"Thank you, Walter. You're a dear," said Nan gratefully. "I'll tell you +all about it just as soon as I can. And you really can help me, Walter, +if you want to." + +"I'll say I do," returned Walter boyishly. "See you later," and he went +out quickly, closing the door behind him. + +As Nan turned back into the room she found Bess regarding her with a +mischievous little smile that said as plainly as words: "What did I tell +you, Nan Sherwood?" + +Nan felt unreasonably angry, but she was not given very much time to +nurse the feeling. Grace was upon her like a young whirlwind, dragging +her over to one of the beds and demanding in no uncertain tone what she +had to say in explanation of her queer conduct a few minutes before. +Rhoda sat down on the other side of Nan, her face eagerly flushed. + +"I never was so curious in my life, Nan Sherwood," she said. "Hurry up +and tell us all about it." + +Nan obediently went over the whole story. She told where she was +carrying Mrs. Bragley's papers, and of her, Nan's, strange impression of +being watched ever since the papers had come into her possession. + +Then while Grace and Rhoda's eyes became wider and wider she told of the +two men they had met on the boat and the tall one's evident desire to +get into their cabin, for some reason known only to himself. And lastly +she related how on that very morning they had found the mysterious men +in suspicious proximity to their stateroom again and how the two had +disappeared upon catching sight of the girls. + +"Why, it's a regular mystery!" Grace cried eagerly, and Bess turned away +from the mirror where she was fixing her hair and looked at her. "A real +mystery!" + +"You speak as if you liked it," she said impatiently. "It is lots of +fun, I must say, to have Nan so worked up and nervous all the time that +you can't say boo to her without making her jump. If those old men don't +get arrested or something pretty soon," she added, turning back to the +mirror, "I'll have to do something desperate, that's all." + +"Please don't," said Nan, with a laugh. "Enough is happening, goodness +knows, without you starting something, too. Oh, come on, girls," she +added, jumping up and flinging off her hat and coat. "I'll find out +something definite about Mrs. Bragley's property before long, I hope, +and then I'll be able to get rid of these horrid old papers. In the +meantime, here we are in Jacksonville, and to-morrow we start for Palm +Beach and everything is wonderful and lovely. Who's that?" A tap had +sounded on the door and the girls started. "You open it, Bess. I have my +hands full." + +"Goodness! did you see me jump then?" Bess demanded grumpily. "I'll be +as bad as Nan before you know it." + +The visitor proved to be no one more formidable than Grace's mother, and +as the girls were very fond of her, they greeted her with literally open +arms. + +Of course Grace had to recount to her all over again the story Nan had +told her and Rhoda, and before she finished Mrs. Mason was looking +rather grave. + +"It certainly does look as though those papers of yours were important, +Nan," she said. "That is evidently what the rascals are after. I'll +tell Mr. Mason, if you say so----" + +"Oh, yes," Nan put in eagerly. + +"And between us we ought to solve the mystery--if there is one." + +"If there is one!" Grace exclaimed indignantly. "Well, I never!" + +"Come, dear," Mrs. Mason merely said, "I know Nan and Bess must be a +little tired after their trip, and they will just have time to rest for +an hour and freshen up before lunch." + +She led the reluctant Grace from the room. With a laughing word Rhoda +followed them, and the chums were left alone. + +That afternoon they went out right after lunch to see Jacksonville. The +Mason's car was waiting for them outside as they stepped out upon the +sidewalk in front of the hotel, but Nan was surprised to find Mr. Mason +instead of the lawyer's son behind the wheel. + +And then she saw Walter! He was in a beautiful, brand new little +two-seater, which was shaped very much like a torpedo and came smartly +close to the ground. + +Nan, who was following her chums into the big car, stopped short at this +strange apparition and uttered an exclamation of surprise. The others +followed the direction of her glance, and Bess stood up excitedly. + +"Hey, Walter! Where did you get the new car?" she asked. "Goodness, +isn't it a beauty!" + +"Do you like it?" asked the boy proudly, as the nose of the +impertinent-looking little runabout stopped short within about two +inches of the back of the big car. "Dad said he was afraid I would smash +the jumbo, so he bought this little toy for me. Some class, isn't it?" + +The girls were enthusiastic, and, indeed, it was an unusually handsome +little car, and Nan ran around to get a closer look at it. + +"Dad got it for me just in time," Walter said, patting the glossy side +of his new steed. + +"Why?" asked Nan innocently. + +"Because there are too many in the party to ride in the big car, and we +can have a much better time in the little fellow, I am sure. Come on, +jump in." + +Although she was eager to try the new car, Nan never wanted anything so +little as she did to ride with Walter at that particular time. + +But Mr. Mason had already started his motor, and there was nothing for +Nan to do but to obey Walter and "jump in." + +The little car had a surprisingly deep, wide tonneau, and Nan sank back +in it luxuriously. She was conscious of the admiring scrutiny of +spectators, and then Walter did a few skilful things to the machine and +it started purringly forward after the big car, both for all the world +like a full-grown horse and its colt. + +Nan sighed contentedly. If it had not been for Bess and the teasing she +was sure to get when they were alone together in their room, she would +have been completely happy. + +Bess turned and waved to her, and the action, Nan knew as well as if her +chum had put it into words, meant: "What did I tell you, Nan Sherwood?" + + + + + CHAPTER XXII + + PALM BEACH AT LAST + + +The tourists had a beautiful time, and everybody decided that if Palm +Beach went ahead of Jacksonville it would have to be very wonderful +indeed. + +Jacksonville itself seemed to them very much like any busy, thriving +city--except that there were more hotels. But when they came to the +outskirts of the city they were charmed and wanted to go on forever. + +Having lived all their lives in a temperate climate, the tropical beauty +of the Florida country entranced them and they exclaimed again and again +as beautiful new panoramas opened before them. The moss-hung live oaks +especially drew exclamations of wonder from Nan. + +"What a perfect picture they form," she said. "Oh, how I wish I could +make sketches of them!" + +"You'll see plenty to sketch when you get to Palm Beach," said Walter. + +They visited the public parks and drove out to some of the suburbs. +Everything interested the girls very much and they frankly said so. + +"Everything is just about perfect," declared Bess. + +"All but the darkeys!" sighed Rhoda. "I think it is all perfectly lovely +but the negroes. There are so many of them, and they one and all look +thoroughly shiftless." + +"Oh, no, not shiftless," put in Mr. Mason. "They are just care-free." + +"Humph! All right, then. Care-free. Just too lazy to care for anything +at all, if they can get enough to eat, and I suppose that is not hard +down here." + +"They are quite all right when you get used to them," put in Mrs. Mason. + +It was nearing dusk when they at last turned back toward the city, and +it was then that Walter reminded Nan of her promise to tell him all +about the mysterious men who had startled her so. + +Nan obeyed, but, strangely enough, felt none of the uneasiness that she +had felt on board the boat and in the hotel. There was something about +the luxurious comfort of the car and Walter's reassuring presence that +made her feel quite safe. + +But Walter himself was anything but calm. He glowered fiercely at the +road ahead of them and his hands clenched tightly on the wheel. + +"It's a rotten shame!" he burst out, when Nan had finished her story. +"If I once get hold of those fellows there won't be enough left of them +to identify." + +"But you will help me find Mrs. Bragley's property for her, won't you?" +insisted Nan. "She said it was at a place called Sunny Slopes." + +"Sunny Slopes, Sunny Slopes," Walter repeated thoughtfully. "The name +sounds rather familiar to me. I tell you what I'll do," he said, turning +to Nan with sudden decision. "Dad knows the names of nearly all the +places through here. And if this Sunny Slopes is anywhere near Palm +Beach we'll drive over in the car. How does that suit you?" + +"Oh, fine," said Nan happily, adding as she gave him a demure glance: +"Only we will drive over in the big car and take the girls along." + +"What's the matter with this car?" asked Walter, turning to look at her. +"I thought you liked it." + +"I love it!" said Nan fervently, adding with a funny little smile that +Walter did not understand: "I think on that particular trip, I would +like to go in the big car." + +The morning after their delightful ride about Jacksonville, they took +the train for Palm Beach. They found to their disgust that Linda and her +party were also on board. + +"Goodness! I think Linda must be following us, too," Bess grumbled to +Nan, looking blackly after their schoolmate as she walked haughtily down +the car aisle. "To look at her you would think she owned the world at +least. Oh, if I could only prove that it was she who damaged the heating +plant up at school, wouldn't it be a wonderful chance to get even with +her?" + +"I don't see why you should want to waste time getting even with her," +Nan remarked calmly. "We have more interesting things to occupy our +time." + +"That's all very well for you," grumbled Bess, still feeling cross and +injured by the unexpected appearance of Linda. "But _I_ haven't any +Walter." + +Nan was just about to say something unpleasant when Walter himself +hailed them. Grace and Rhoda were with him and all wore smiles to match +the morning. + +"Come on back," the boy invited. "Dad's got chairs for the whole crowd +where we can get the finest view. But he said we had better grab 'em +quick, because there's no knowing how long they will last in this +crowd." + +So the girls followed him to the observation car and would very probably +have forgotten all about Linda, had not the girl herself made that +impossible. + +It was hot, and there were few people in the car, but Linda and one of +the ladies in her party walked up and down, looking occasionally out of +the windows, as if their energy was inexhaustible. + +That would not have been so bad, had not Linda chosen to ignore the +girls so pointedly, brushing past with her head held in the air and a +manner which said very plainly, "Who are those little specks of dust +over there? Know them? Why, of course not!" Finally Bess felt as though +she could not stand it a moment longer. + +"She's doing it on purpose, the horrid thing," Bess fumed to Nan. "If +she doesn't stop pretty soon, I'll give her a push and topple her over. +She'll not look so haughty then, I fancy." + +Perhaps it was just as well for all concerned that Linda stopped her +bad-mannered performance shortly after that, for Bess could not have +been restrained much longer. With this annoyance removed, they had +opportunity to enjoy the ride to the full. + +Mr. Mason proved a very interesting companion, for he knew the names of +the places they passed and told the girls funny stories about things +that had happened in each one of them until they were tired out from the +laughter. + +"I never knew there were so many resorts in the world," sighed Nan, +leaning back lazily in her chair. "The only place I really ever +connected with Florida was Palm Beach. But it seems that is only one of +about a million." + +"Hardly that," laughed Mr. Mason. "It is true there are a great many +resorts in Florida, but the most beautiful and famous of them is Palm +Beach." + +"Mr. Mason," spoke up Bess, with a wicked little look at Nan, "is it +true that most of the people who go to Palm Beach are either bald-headed +millionaires or fussy women who just go there to show off their +clothes?" + +Mr. Mason laughed heartily at this, and the rest of his family joined +in, while Nan shot a reproachful glance at her chum. + +"No, my dear," said the gentleman finally, a humorous twist in the +corners of his mouth. "I can't say that all the guests at Palm Beach are +of the particular varieties you have mentioned. There are bald-headed +millionaires, of course, and plenty of fussy, over-dressed women, but +the people that I have mostly met in the hotels have struck me as being +nice folks, very much like ourselves----" + +"Stop handing yourself bouquets, Dad," Walter broke in, with a chuckle. + +"I included the whole family," said Mr. Mason gravely. "The +millionaires," he went on, "don't come to the hotels as a rule. They +build themselves beautiful bungalows along the shore and take their +recreation mostly in private clubs." + +"Oh, dear! I think that's horrid," pouted Bess. "That's one of the +things I came for especially. I wanted to see a dozen real live +millionaires all in one spot." + +"You shall see plenty of millionaires," promised Mr. Mason. "Although we +won't guarantee to have them all in one spot." + +A few hours later the tide of passengers flowed from the train at Palm +Beach and the girls, borne along with the crowd, looked about them +eagerly. + +They had heard a great deal about the beauty of this famous winter +resort, but they realized in that one swift glance that nothing they had +ever heard had half done it justice. + +"Is that a hotel over there?" asked Nan of Grace, as they allowed +themselves to be swept on by the merry crowd. Bess and Rhoda were coming +slowly along behind them. "That immense yellow building with the green +blinds?" + +"Yes, that's the Royal Poinciana," answered Grace. "Where we are going +to stay, you know." + +"Oh, are we?" asked Nan faintly, as she gazed up at the Royal Poinciana +Hotel, which was six stories in height and seemed to cover several acres +of ground. "Goodness, it seems as if the whole world ought to be able to +get in there. And what's that?" she went on, pointing to another yellow +building with green blinds. "Its twin?" + +"Yes. They call it The Breakers," returned Grace, rather enjoying her +new role of guide. "It isn't quite as large as the Royal Poinciana, but +dad says it is just as good." + +Before long they reached the hotel and they waited while Walter, Bess, +Rhoda and Mr. and Mrs. Mason came puffing up to them, warm from the heat +of the afternoon sun. + +"Come ahead, folks," said Mr. Mason, engineering his flock up the steps +of the hotel to the porch. "Let's get cooled and brushed up a bit, and +then we can come out and see the sights. This is the biggest crowd I +have ever found here," he added, as they entered the darkened, cool +lobby of the hotel with a conscious sigh of relief, "and that is saying +a good deal." + + + + + CHAPTER XXIII + + A TROPICAL PARADISE + + +The signing of the hotel register was not an easy task, for there were +many other guests waiting to do the same thing. Mr. Mason finally +managed it, however, and he and his rather large family were whirled up +in a roomy elevator to the fifth floor and were shown to their rooms by +a well-mannered and friendly bellboy. + +Bess and Nan were to room together and Grace and Rhoda had a room right +off theirs, connected by a door, so that it was really as if the girls +were all in one room. + +"Come down on the porch when you are ready, girls," said Walter, just +before he disappeared into his own room, "and we'll wander around and +see the sights." + +Nan and Bess were delighted with their room, for it was large and airy +and commanded a beautiful view of Lake Worth, upon which the Royal +Poinciana Hotel is situated. Grace's and Rhoda's room also faced the +lake. + +"Oh, girls, look at all the boats!" squealed Bess, dancing delightedly +up and down before one of the windows. "They are so thick you can hardly +see any water between them." + +"The _Bargain Rush_ is down there somewhere," said Grace, as she and Nan +ran across the room to peek over Bess's shoulder. "Dad made an awful +fuss about having it shipped all the way, but Walter said he didn't want +to come if he couldn't have it." + +"But, Grace, this is the first word you have said about the _Bargain +Rush_," said Bess reproachfully. "And you know just how unhappy we'd be +if we did not have a boat down here." + +"I've heard about Lake Worth being such a beautiful harbor for the +pleasure boats of the Palm Beach tourists," said Rhoda happily, "but I +never imagined it was half so beautiful." + +"But where is the ocean?" asked Bess, as they turned from the window and +began a hurried "freshening process." "I declare, I'm all mixed up." + +"The ocean is in back of us, silly," Nan informed her. "Didn't you +notice the beautiful beach down there as we came along? There were +people in bathing, too. Oh, don't I wish I could go in myself this very +minute. Just think of it--surf bathing in February!" + +"Br-r-r, stop it," commanded Bess with a shiver. "You make me chilly." + +They were ready to see the sights in a surprisingly short time, and Bess +noticed as they stepped out into the corridor that Nan locked the door +very carefully and slipped the key into her pocket. + +"You aren't worrying about those men yet, are you?" she asked. + +"No-o," said Nan a little doubtfully. "But it is always just as well to +be on the safe side." + +Together with other girls and boys and men and women, all, like +themselves, on pleasure bent, the girls made their way down to the lobby +of the great hotel. Seeing nothing of Walter there, they rather timidly +stepped out upon the veranda. + +The size of it made them gasp, and for a moment they just stood staring +stupidly at the seemingly endless vista of chairs and tables and +people--Nan and the others were sure there were millions of people. + +They might have stood there forever, had not Nan become suddenly aware +of the admiring glances of several of the crowd that thronged the +piazza. For the four modishly dressed girls formed a very pretty and +striking picture. + +"Let's sit down or something--everybody is staring at us," she whispered +to Rhoda, but at that moment Rhoda caught sight of Walter and waved a +commanding hand. + +"So here you are," said the boy, his face lighting up with pleasure at +the unexpected sight of the girls. "Right this way, ladies. Say," he +added, as they started down the steps together, "you're looking great, +girls. It isn't every fellow who has the chance to escort four pippins +at Palm Beach." + +"Pippins!" repeated Grace emphatically, while the others giggled. "You +know that's vulgar, Walter." + +"Vulgar or not, it's the truth," said Walter cheerfully. "Isn't this +some garden?" he went on. + +The Royal Poinciana Hotel was set in a tropical paradise of gorgeous +flowers and shrubs and trees, the beauty of which no one who has not +seen it can imagine. + +One tree in particular caught Nan's eye and she pointed it out eagerly. + +"Look at that gorgeous thing," she cried. "What is it, Walter--a shrub +or a tree or a flower, or a mixture of all of them?" + +"That's the Royal Poinciana tree," explained Walter. "It is a beauty, +isn't it? The hotel is named for the tree, you know." + +They wandered on again, exclaiming at every step, so happy and excited +that more than one person in passing turned to look after them with an +indulgent smile. + +There were the golf links between the two hotels, and men who "looked +old enough to know better," to quote Bess, were wandering over the +velvet green sward with faithful caddies trailing along in the rear. + +"I don't see what possible fun they can find in just batting a foolish +little ball about," was Nan's comment, and Rhoda turned to her with a +laugh. + +"About the same pleasure that you find in batting a foolish little +tennis ball about," she said, and Nan caught her up indignantly. + +"But that's different!" she said, and they laughed at her. + +"Look!" cried Grace, a moment later, pointing to some beautiful level +tennis courts where several animated sets of singles were in progress. +"You can't say we don't give you every kind of amusement here, Nan." + +"It's wonderful," sighed Nan happily. "I'm glad now that I thought to +pack my racket before I started. My, how I would like to be out there +now." For Nan was a tennis enthusiast, and really could play the game +well. + +"I'll play you a game to-morrow morning," challenged Walter, and she +took him up eagerly. + +"Any time you say," she laughed. "And I'll take the court with the sun +in my eyes!" + +They must have wandered on for a long time, for the sun was getting low +when they finally turned to go back. They had passed "cottages" which +must have cost their owners a small fortune to build and several small +fortunes to maintain. + +Walter pointed out to them a club of millionaires whose membership was +something like two hundred, with three hundred more prospective members +on the waiting list. + +"Goodness!" exclaimed Bess, "I think I shall have to break in there some +time. Think of seeing two hundred millionaires all in one place, instead +of only a dozen!" + +"If you break in, Bess, you may get into trouble," said Walter, with a +twinkle in his eye. "What if several of the millionaires proposed to you +at once? You wouldn't know which one to take, you know you wouldn't." + +"Then I wouldn't take any of them," announced the girl from Tillbury +promptly. + +"What, throw a real millionaire overboard?" and Walter gave a pretended +gasp. + +"Of course. A millionaire might be nice to look at and very hateful to +live with," and Bess flung back her head as if that settled it. + +"Oh, let's give the millionaires a rest," put in Rhoda. "I know what I'd +like." + +"What?" came from several of the others. + +"A horseback ride down there on the beach." + +"Nothing easier," said Walter. "When do you want to go, now? If you do, +I'll get you a horse--over at the stand yonder." + +"Will you go?" questioned the girl from Rose Ranch, turning to her +school chums. + +"Hadn't we better wait until we are a little better acquainted?" +questioned Nan. + +"All right. I suppose it's a bit hot to-day anyway," said Rhoda. + +"I guess you miss the riding you used to do on the ranch," said Grace. + +"I certainly do. Not but what this is very nice for a change." + +It was late when they reached the hotel at last, and the girls began to +realize for the first time that they were tired. + +"See you to-night," whispered Walter to Nan, as Grace, Bess and Rhoda +disappeared into the lobby. "And don't forget that tennis engagement for +to-morrow. Ten o'clock sharp." + + + + + CHAPTER XXIV + + NAN IS FRIGHTENED + + +Nan played tennis with Walter the next day, and what is more, she beat +him, four out of six. She declared later that it must have been either +pure luck, or the fact that Walter was so dazed with surprise at finding +that it was possible for a girl to beat him that he had given her two +sets before he had recovered from the shock. + +Be that as it may, the fact remained that Nan had to work her hardest to +wrest a set from him after that, and felt very lucky if she managed to +win one out of three. + +On the other hand, Walter had to work his hardest to keep Nan from +making a "fool" of him and winning everything. Consequently his +admiration for the girl from Tillbury rose at least ten points. + +The other girls were interested in the game also, although of the three, +Grace was by far the best player. Lazy Bess much preferred reading a +magazine on the immense piazza of the hotel to chasing a ball around in +the hot sun. + +There were so many wonderful things to occupy their attention that a +week flew by before they knew it. Almost without sensing it, the girls +had drifted into the routine of gay activities that prevailed at the +resort. + +There was usually a brisk walk before breakfast. That is, there was for +Nan, Rhoda, Grace and Walter. Bess was often too tired after the gaiety +of the day before to get up before breakfast to take anything so +uninteresting as a walk. + +Then came breakfast, an event in itself, for the food was delicious, +especially to such ravenous appetites as the girls and Walter brought +back to it, and the beautiful dining-room of the hotel was a treat to +the eye. + +After breakfast the majority of the guests sallied forth to the delights +of motoring or sailing or tennis, while the others either lingered on +the porch or sauntered over to the golf links to play a game of golf, +or, if anglers, went out on a fishing excursion. + +The golf course was between the two hotels, so that the players not only +furnished amusement for themselves but for all those who cared to watch +them. + +Later in the morning, somewhere between eleven o'clock and noon, was the +hour for bathing. Then all who cared to go in the water made a dash for +the ocean, and had a cool, invigorating plunge before luncheon. This was +the hour that Nan liked best of all. + +Later in the afternoon, one could either go over to the cocoanut grove +for afternoon tea and a dance or two or take what was in many cases a +much-needed rest. + +At night the girls loved to have dinner in the Garden Grill, for the +place itself was a romantic dream of beauty with its palm trees and +boxes of shrubs. And the music--the music carried them far away from the +present on golden wings of melody and made them forget that there was +anything sordid or unpleasant in all the world. + +Perhaps the evening was the time that most of the Palm Beach visitors +lived for. Then came the chance to display beautiful gowns and flashing +jewels of fabulous worth. + +There was a glamor about the lights and music and gowns and jewels that +quite went to wealth-loving Bess's head, and even made steady Rhoda's +heart beat faster and eyes shine brighter. + +As for Nan and Grace--they were just in their element, and showed it. + +Of course they met Linda Riggs occasionally. It would have been +impossible for them not to have done so. But as the disagreeable girl +continued consistently to ignore them, the chums just as consistently +adopted the same attitude. + +They met several other girls of about their own age, and two of these +girls had their brothers with them, and these youths had two chums +along--so none of the girls wanted for partners when it came to dancing +or playing tennis. In fact, sometimes they had "more partners than were +really needed," as Bess put it. + +"But you are not going to complain because you have enough partners, are +you?" queried Grace. + +"Oh, no, indeed," cried Bess. "I am glad there are more boys here. +Imagine Walter having to take care of all of us." + +One day all of them went for a horseback ride. This put Rhoda in her +element, and, seated on a fine, spirited steed, the girl from Rose Ranch +gave as fine an exhibition of horsemanship as had been seen at Palm +Beach for a long time. + +"Your chum rides like a regular western girl," said one of the boys +present, to Nan. + +"And that is just what she is," answered Nan. "And one of the best girls +in the world besides." + +"I don't doubt it. I wish I could ride half as well." + +"Maybe Rhoda will give you lessons." + +"No such luck, I'm afraid," said the boy. "But I'll ask her anyway," and +he did, with the result that he and Rhoda went out half a dozen times, +and the girl from Rose Ranch taught him many of her best riding tricks. + +"He's a splendid fellow, Will Halliday is," said Rhoda to Nan. "He likes +outdoor life--and that's the best there is." + +"Does he come from out West?" + +"The middle West--Iowa." + +"You are making a good rider of him, Rhoda." + +"Well, I like somebody who takes a real interest in a horse," answered +the girl from Rose Ranch. + +One night in the ballroom, Rhoda espied Linda across the room and with +her was a girl who looked familiar. She called Nan's attention to the +fact. + +"Why, yes," said Nan with a puzzled frown. "It looks like--why, Rhoda, +it is----" + +"Cora Courtney!" finished Rhoda in a "what-will-happen next" tone of +voice. + +"Let's go over and make sure," said Nan, and they started to skirt the +floor, hugging the wall to escape the dancers, for the floor was already +crowded with them. But when they reached the spot where Linda and her +companion had been, the latter were gone, and, try as they would, the +girls could not find them. + +"It seems awfully strange," said Nan as they disappointedly found their +way back to their seats, "that if the girl was really Cora we haven't +seen her before." + +They told Bess and Grace about it later, and they agreed that the +incident looked queer, to say the least. However, they had so many +things to think about in the days that followed, that Linda slipped +entirely from their minds. + +One morning the girls decided to forego their usual game of tennis and +take an early dip instead. Nan had complained of an ache in the muscles +of her right arm, and as the trouble almost undoubtedly came from +overstrain, Walter had insisted that she take "a day off." + +The weather had seemed uncomfortably warm at the hotel, but when they +reached the beach the girls were surprised to find that they felt +chilly. + +"Goodness!" said Bess with a shiver, "I think I will let you girls go in +and I'll stay here. Experience has taught me that the beautiful green +ocean about these parts isn't always as balmy and warm as it's reported +to be." + +"No, you don't," said Nan decidedly. "You know very well it spoils all +the fun if one of us backs out. Come on, Rhoda, you take the other arm. +One--two--three--go!" and Bess was hurried, half laughing and half angry +and wholly protesting, down to the water's edge and promptly ducked +under a foam-tipped, hungry, man-eating wave. + +She came out on the other side and struck out manfully, puffing and +steaming like a young whale. + +The girls watched her laughingly for a minute, then plunged in after +her. + +"My, the water is cold," sputtered Grace, as the girls struck out +abreast with long, beautifully even strokes. "Poor Bess! I don't know +but what she had the right idea after all." + +The hour being so early, the girls had that particular portion of Old +Man Ocean almost to themselves. There were a few early bathers, however, +and among these was a man with a long, thin face and a mouth that was +set in a hard, straight line. + +Nan, doing the crawl with her head under water, came up directly in +front of this unpleasant-looking person and was so startled and +surprised in consequence that she almost forgot to keep herself afloat. + +Her paralysis remained only a moment, however, and in a flash of time +she was swimming back toward her companions. + +As for the man, having given Nan a careful look, he suddenly made a dash +for the shore and one of the bathhouses. + +"I reckon this is my chance," he said, as he got into his clothing with +all speed. "I'll do the trick while she is in bathing." + +Nan was almost out of breath when she reached her chums. + +"Listen to me!" she gasped. "I've got to get up to the hotel--and at +once!" + +"Nan Sherwood, is it serious this time, or is this only another of your +attacks?" asked Bess impatiently. "Here you are the one who dragged us +into the water at this early hour, and now you want to spoil all the fun +by breaking up the party. For goodness' sake, listen to reason," she +wailed, as Nan, with a determined shake of her red-capped head, started +in toward shore. + +"Haven't time," she flung back. + +"You can at least tell us what the matter is," called Grace, as +reluctant as Bess to cut short the fun. + +"Haven't time," Nan repeated, half way in to shore now. + +Bess and Grace paddled the water and looked at each other helplessly. + +"Don't you think we had better go, too?" asked Rhoda uncertainly. + +"No, I don't," was Bess's cross answer. "Nan's acting awfully funny +these days, anyway. I think she has another secret." + +As for Nan, she did not wait to see whether the girls were following her +or not, but ran posthaste to her bathhouse, where she exchanged her +bathing suit for more formal attire. Then she hurried on to the hotel. + +She had not seen this man since his arrival at Palm Beach, and the +sudden appearance of his face so close to hers in the water had startled +her horribly. Her first thought had been of the documents in her +suitcase and her one desire to get to them as soon as possible. + +"Oh, what a fool I was not to give those papers to Mr. Mason, or have +them placed in the hotel safe," she scolded to herself. She called +herself several kinds of a goose as she ran down the quiet corridor to +her room. As she stood before the door a slight noise within sent her +heart suddenly into her mouth, and she hesitated before turning the +knob. + +Then, with desperate courage, she flung the door wide and stepped into +the room. Before her bed a tall, thin man was standing, and on the bed +was a bag, her bag, partly open, with the contents showing! + +In a moment her fear changed to flaming indignation, and she sprang +forward, flinging herself before the bag and pushing the man away from +her with furious, impotent little fists. + +"You little imp!" the fellow snarled, catching her wrists and holding +them in an iron grip. "You just dare make a noise, and I'll show you +who's boss. You little----" + +"Nan! Oh, Nan, what's the matter?" + +The voice held a frightened note, and its owner was evidently running +along the corridor toward Nan's open door. The man said something under +his breath, released Nan's wrists, and darted toward the window. + +Nan, conscious of a stabbing pain in her wrists, followed him, but not +in time to stop his flight. She saw him disappear down the fire escape +and then, with a little stifled sob, turned back into the room and found +herself face to face with her startled chums. + +"Nan! you look like a ghost," cried Bess, flinging an arm about the +girl and drawing her to the bed. + +"We thought we heard a man's voice," added Rhoda, staring with +fascinated eyes from Nan to the half-opened bag on the bed. + +Grace was plainly frightened. "Nan! was that man here?" + +"Yes," said Nan faintly. "He was here and he--oh, girls, it was +dreadful! I can't talk about it." And she broke down with a sob and +buried her head on Bess's shoulder. + + + + + CHAPTER XXV + + MOONLIGHT + + +When Nan told her story to the Masons a little later they were not only +indignant but very genuinely worried. Walter declared that he would +"catch that man and wring his neck before the day was up," which boast, +though extremely extravagant, brought strange comfort to Nan, shocked as +she had been by the events of the morning. + +Mr. Mason wanted to shadow the man, but Nan begged him not to do that +until after they had had a chance to look up Mrs. Bragley's property for +her and see what it was worth. + +"If that's the way you feel," Mr. Mason decided sympathetically, "it +seems to me the best thing to do is to get to Sunny Slopes as soon as +possible, take a look at this land, and employ an attorney, if need be, +to be sure her title is clear. Then if this man is illegally trying to +wrest the land from its rightful owner, we will employ a detective and +see that the fellow is brought to justice. I want to lift the load from +these young shoulders," he said, looking down at Nan with the nice smile +that made everybody like him. "They are too young to carry the troubles +of other people yet." + +Nan smiled up at him gratefully, and perhaps the interview might have +ended there had Walter allowed it to. But Walter was still tremendously +worried about Nan. + +"But Dad," he said, turning to his father accusingly, "you certainly +can't mean that you are going to let that man wander around loose so +that he can worry Nan all he wants to. Why, this is four or five times +already that he has nearly frightened her to death. Why," he continued, +waxing more excited as he thought about it and glaring at the anxious +group of people as though it were in some way all their fault, "he isn't +going to stop when he so nearly got what he wanted to-day. He may come +back again to-night----" + +"That is very unlikely," Mr. Mason broke in, in a cheerful, +matter-of-fact tone. "He knows that we are on our guard now. For all he +can tell, we may have detectives in every corridor and he will be very +careful how he ventures near Nan's room to-night. No, he will try some +other way since this one has failed. And in a day or two we will motor +down to Sunny Slopes and relieve Nan's mind about this woman's +property." + +In spite of Mr. Mason's very reasonable conviction that the man would +not return to Nan's room, the girls were nervous that night, especially +Bess, and they were all glad when the sun, creeping in through the +window, announced that another beautiful day had begun. + +"Goodness!" said Bess, stretching fretfully, "if this keeps up much +longer, Nan Sherwood, I'll just be a wreck, that's all." + +"Get your cold water plunge and you will feel better," said Nan, at +which practical suggestion Bess merely grunted. + +They were to play a tennis match that day, Rhoda and Walter against Nan +and Grace, and naturally they all had set their hearts upon winning. +Bess had begged off on the ground that it was too warm to play. + +It was a glorious morning for the sport, sunshiny and clear, yet cool, +and the girls forgot their restless night as they stepped out upon the +court. + +It was not till they started to "warm up" and Nan wound up for her usual +swift serve that they had an inkling of the thing that was to spoil the +fun for that morning, at least. + +Nan struck weakly at the ball, which landed ignominiously in the net and +then dropped her racket with a little cry of pain. The girls and Walter +ran to her anxiously, Walter jumping the net and scooping up the ball as +he came. + +"What is the matter, Nan Sherwood?" Bess wanted to know. "That's the +funniest ball I ever saw you serve." + +"It's my wrist," said Nan apologetically. "It turned just at the wrong +minute. I don't seem to have any power in it." + +"Let me see," Walter demanded masterfully, and as he held her little +wrist in his hand Nan noticed that it was red and swollen. + +"Oh-h!" she said impulsively, "that must be where the man grabbed me so +tight yesterday. I'm dreadfully sorry to spoil your game," she added, +thinking, as always, more of every one else than of herself. + +"Hang the old game," said Walter explosively. "We can play that any +time. But if I could get my hands on that--that----" + +"Don't say it," begged Nan, with a little laugh. "You mustn't talk about +people behind their backs, you know." + +"But now our game is spoiled, and we have a whole long morning on our +hands," wailed Grace. "I wish I had slept a couple of hours longer." + +"I tell you what we'll do," said Walter, with sudden inspiration. "We'll +take some fishing tackle--Grace and I have enough to go round--and go +out in the little old _Bargain Rush_ to a place I know of where the fish +just come trotting up begging to be caught. How about it, girls? Are you +on?" + +It seemed that they were, enthusiastically so, and half an hour later +Grace was declaring that she was sorry about poor Nan's wrist, of +course, but if this wasn't better than playing a hot game of tennis and +probably getting beaten, her name wasn't Grace Mason, that's all. + +Walter was right about the fish--they seemed to enjoy being caught, and +when, almost at noon time, they came back to the hotel with Walter +bringing up the rear with the result of the morning's sport proudly +displayed, strangers followed them with envious eyes and people they +knew stopped them to ask where they had found the fish. + +As for Nan, she tried hard to enter into the old round of gaieties with +her usual enthusiasm, for she knew that to show how worried she was +would only spoil the fun of her friends. But to herself she acknowledged +that she would not really be able to enjoy anything again until the +mystery of those dangerous papers in her bag was finally cleared up and +she was free from espionage once more. + +Walter seemed to be the only one who really understood her state of mind +and when she pleaded a headache that afternoon and broke an engagement +with the girls to go to the cocoanut grove for tea, it was Walter who +silenced their protests and took her himself up to her room. + +"I'm awfully sorry about this," he said, taking the wrist, which had +been rubbed with liniment and neatly bandaged by Mrs. Mason, in one of +his sunburned hands and patting it awkwardly. "Does it ache very much +now?" + +"N-no. It doesn't ache at all," said Nan, adding quickly to cover her +confusion as she drew her hand away, "I think you had better go down to +the girls now, Walter. They will think you've deserted them." + +"Oh, all right," said Walter, and perhaps it was only Nan's imagination +that made her think he looked hurt. "Be sure and save the first two +dances for me to-night." + +He went out quietly, and for a long time after he had gone Nan stood +looking at the closed door. Then her glance dropped to her bandaged +wrist and she smiled a little. + +"Boys are so funny," she murmured--to no one in particular. + +There was a big dance that night, and when the time came to dress Nan +still further incensed the girls by refusing to dress. + +"How would I look in an evening dress and--this thing?" she asked, +holding up her bandaged wrist. + +"No one ever would look at your wrist when your face is along, Nan +Sherwood," said Rhoda, at which Nan laughed but still remained firm. + +"Oh, well," said Bess, flouncing over to her closet and taking out a +pretty white net and blue satin dress, "I suppose you will have your own +way, Nan. But one way or another, that old Mrs. Bragley and her +miserable papers have just spoiled our trip. I wish she was in Jericho!" + +"It was Guinea last time," Nan laughed at her. + +Since Nan refused to dance that night, Walter also refused. Try as she +might, Nan could not get him to alter his decision, and finally gave up +the attempt in despair. + +"Grace and Bess will be furious," she said. + +"Let them," he answered recklessly. "There are plenty of other fellows +around. See that moon over there? Say, Nan, I have a bully idea." + +They were standing in one corner of the veranda of the Royal Poinciana. +The veranda looked strangely deserted that night, the dance being at its +height in the ballroom within, and it being still a little early for the +inevitable drifting of couples from the heat of the ballroom to the cool +breezes of the porch. + +"An idea?" asked Nan, feeling adventurous herself. "Tell me." + +"Back there somewhere the _Bargain Rush_ is waiting," said Walter, his +voice boyishly eager. "Since we can't dance, we might as well 'putt.' +And--it seems too bad to waste that moon." + +Nan thought so, too, and a moment later they were running hand in hand +through the garden to the spot where the _Bargain Rush_ waited. They +scrambled on board, Walter started the engine, and they drifted out into +the magic stillness of the night. + +"Now tell me," said Walter after a while, his eyes shifting from the +moonlit waters of the lake to Nan where she sat curled up in one of the +chairs, gazing dreamily out over the shadowy water, "isn't this better +than dancing?" + +"It's awfully nice," admitted Nan. + +"I get so tired of the hot ballroom, and the bright lights," went on the +boy, as he bent over the engine, to see that it was running properly. + +"Well, I get tired of the lights myself, Walter." + +"And those flashing jewels! Why will some of the women load themselves +with so much jewelry?" + +"I'm sure I don't know. I think too much jewelry is horrid." + +"I suppose some folks think that is the one way to let others know that +they have money." + +Nan drew a deep breath. "Look at the moon, Walter, isn't it simply +wonderful?" + +"Sure is. And I think----" + +Walter came to a sudden stop. Another motor boat had loomed up, running +dangerously close to the _Bargain Rush_. + +"Hi, keep away from there!" called out the boy. + +"They'll run into us!" exclaimed Nan, in sudden alarm. + +"Don't get scared, sonny!" sang out a man in the other motor boat and +then he suddenly veered out of the way, but with only an inch or two to +spare. + +"The great big clown!" burst out Walter, in just anger. "He did that +just to give us a scare." + +"It was no way to do," said Nan. She was not a little shaken by the +unexpected happening. + +"I hope he runs into a tree, or a rock, or something." + +"There he goes, along the other shore of the lake," said Nan, a few +seconds later. "See, I think he is trying to scare the folks in that +other motor boat." + +"He's either crazy or a fool," murmured Walter. + +The unknown motorist was evidently amusing himself at the expense of +those less daring than himself, and he raced up and down the lake +several times. But soon a larger motor boat put out and bore down upon +him. + +"We've been laying for you," said a man who was evidently an official. +"You'll not try any more of those tricks." + +"That's right--place him under arrest," said another man, one who had +come close to suffering a collision. "I'll make a charge against him." + +"I was only having a little fun," whined the man who had been racing +around. + +"You can tell your story at the police station," was the answer. And +then the fellow was placed under arrest. + +Nan and Walter continued their ride in the moonlight, and soon the +unpleasant incident was forgotten. They talked of their good times at +Palm Beach, and then the youth referred to what Nan proposed to do for +Mrs. Bragley. + +"Nan, I'm awfully sorry you are so worried about those old property +papers," remarked Walter presently. "Why don't you turn them over to my +dad?" + +"I thought you'd say that, Walter," she returned. "I've been expecting +it. Why don't I? Well, to tell the truth, I don't know. I--I guess I am +a little headstrong about it." + +"Headstrong?" he repeated, plainly puzzled. + +"Yes. You see Bess and the others think I am so--so--well, so scared I +can't keep them in my possession. Well," Nan drew a deep breath, "I am +scared. But, just the same, I'm not so scared as all that--and I'm going +to prove it to them, so there!" + +Walter gazed at her in open admiration for a moment. + +"Nan, you're a brick!" he cried. + + + + + CHAPTER XXVI + + WORTH A FORTUNE + + +Mr. Mason, by inquiry, had found out that the district known as Sunny +Slopes was about sixty miles from Palm Beach, and the next morning they +set off by motor for the place, Mrs. Mason having declared to her +husband the night before that "it was of no use to put the thing off any +longer. The girl's nerves were all on edge over that queer widow's +mysterious papers. He may not have noticed it, but she had been watching +Nan very closely." + +So it came about that a big machine, carrying Mr. and Mrs. Mason, Nan +and Bess and Rhoda, and enough luggage to last them at a hotel for a few +days, and a torpedo-shaped little car bearing Walter and Grace set out +bright and early to make the trip to Sunny Slopes. + +Walter had taken it for granted that Nan would ride with him, and had +seemed inclined to sulk when she decidedly refused. For Nan had taken +herself very severely to task when she had reached her room the night +before. She had broken her rule never to go anywhere with Walter unless +the girls were along, and she would never, never do it again. She was +particularly hard on herself to-day--and on poor Walter--because of the +fact that she had enjoyed that dreamlike sail over the moonlight waters +of Lake Worth more than she had ever enjoyed anything before. + +So Walter, coming behind the big machine with Grace, sulked, and Grace +scolded because, in his preoccupation, he nearly ran her and himself +into a ditch. + +Their route lay over the lake to West Palm Beach and then along a +beautiful highway lined on either side with gorgeous palms. + +"I don't wonder the place is called Palm Beach," remarked Rhoda. "I +never dreamed of seeing so many fine palm trees before." + +They had made careful inquiries concerning the route, and once the +houses and bungalows were left behind they "hit it up" to a very +respectable rate of speed. The roads, for the most part, were very good, +and the only spots covered where they had to be careful were where there +had been washouts. + +"It is certainly a pretty landscape," remarked Grace, as they sped past +one settlement after another. "I don't wonder that you said you'd like +to make sketches, Nan." + +"But I haven't made any yet," was Nan's answer, with a slight shrug of +the shoulders. + +They reached Sunny Slopes about noon, and decided--at least their +ravenous appetites decided for them--that they had better have something +to eat before they inquired further into the mystery of Mrs. Bragley's +papers. + +Nan was the only one who seemed very much excited, and the others did +not notice that the girl scarcely touched her lunch. It seemed an age to +her before the meal was finished and Mr. Mason declared that they were +ready to make their investigations. + +Nan and her friends would have been very much surprised had they known +that they were being followed on their trip to Sunny Slopes, yet such +was a fact. The two men who had tried so hard to gain possession of +Sarah Bragley's documents were growing desperate. + +"We've got to do something and do it quick," snapped the tall, thin man. +"Do you hear me?" + +"I certainly do," growled the other. + +"If we fail we won't get a cent of the cash that was promised to us." + +"I know that, too," answered the short man, and scowled deeply. + +Mr. Mason had once, in his less affluent days, been a real estate broker +himself, and so pooh-poohed his wife's suggestion that he get some one +who knew the country to direct them. + +"My dear," he said, "if this Mrs. Bragley has any property around here, +I'll find it." + +He had, with Nan's consent, examined the documents the widow had given +her and had seemed, to Nan's eager eyes, to have been considerably +impressed by them. + +So now as they crowded out of the restaurant--it was the first one they +had come to, and they had been too hungry to argue about its elegance or +lack of it--and climbed into the cars again, Nan could hardly keep still +in her eagerness to know the truth at once. + +They passed down a short business street, and then, making a turn, came +out on a broad country road. + +"Sunny Slopes begins about a mile from here," said Mr. Mason. "It covers +quite a bit of territory, I am told. While one end is quite barren, the +other end is excellent for orange growing and is covered with bearing +trees." + +"Oh, dear, I hope Mrs. Bragley's end is the orange-growing end!" cried +Nan. + +"Don't be too much disappointed if it isn't," said Mrs. Mason kindly. + +Suddenly Bess, who had been laughing and talking with Rhoda about school +affairs, gave a little bounce and cried out excitedly: + +"Look there! Isn't that an orange grove?" + +"It surely is," Mr. Mason called back to her, adding in a voice that +showed his rising excitement: "Your widow's property ought to be +somewhere in here, Nan. I think I'll stop the car and we can go forward +on foot." + +"Oh!" said Nan softly, as, a moment later, she jumped out into the road. +"I never saw an orange grove before. Isn't it wonderful!" + +"Goodness!" said Bess, as Grace and Walter drew up behind the big car +and ran around and joined them, "it looks as if they had all been drawn +after the same pattern--the trees, I mean. Did you ever see anything so +symmetrical in all your life?" + +It was the first time any of them, except the Masons, had been close to +an orange grove, and they all went forward for a closer look at it. The +grove was set quite a way back from the road and seemed to cover many +acres of ground, stretching symmetrically back as far as the eye could +see. + +The orange trees were not tall, and were shaped very much like the +little toy trees the children use to build their landscape +gardens--broad at the bottom and tapering up almost to a point at the +top. + +From his examination of the documents carried by Nan, Mr. Mason had +jotted down a number of facts and figures. Now the lawyer walked forward +slowly and presently examined a number of stone markers he found set in +the ground. Then he walked to a side road and read the signs thereon. A +smile of satisfaction crossed his face. + +Nan, standing close to Mr. Mason, touched his arm timidly. + +"Is this Mrs. Bragley's property?" she asked in an awed tone. + +"These are most certainly the orange groves mentioned in her documents," +he said gravely. "How much of it she owns will have to be determined by +an attorney. But I guess," he added, looking down at Nan with a kindly +smile, "that the property she holds here is worth a tidy sum, several +thousand dollars at least. Of course the orange grove itself is worth a +fortune." + +"I'm so glad!" cried Nan happily. "I just can't wait to let poor Mrs. +Bragley know about it." + +"Well, I must say," said Bess, "that this is the first time I've really +thought those old papers were worth anything, Nan. Perhaps now we can +get rid of them so we won't have any more trouble." + +"Then there was a real reason for those men shadowing Nan," said Walter, +adding with an unusually fierce scowl: "If they turn up again, I will +kill them, that's all, even if it lands me in jail." + +"My, aren't we dangerous," said Nan, laughing at him. + +Nan never afterward knew just how it happened, but some way or other, +among the orange trees, she managed to get separated from the rest of +the party. She was so engrossed with happy thoughts of the success of +her plan to help Mrs. Bragley and so absorbed in imagining the woman's +surprise and joy at the news she was about to receive that it was some +time before she woke up to the fact that she was alone. + +The predicament--if indeed it was one--did not particularly worry her, +for she knew that she could find her way back to the road easily enough +and that there was no possibility in the world of her becoming really +lost. + +As she stood reveling in the tropical beauty of the scene and smiling +happily to herself, a thought suddenly flashed through her mind that +banished the smile from her lips and brought an anxious frown to her +brow. + +"I've left my bag in the car!" she told herself. "And with all Mrs. +Bragley's papers in it! If I should lose them now, after bringing them +safely all this way----" + +Action followed swift upon the thought, and she started through the +grove in the direction she had come. + +"Not so fast! Not so fast!" said a voice beside her, and the next moment +a man darted out from the shelter of the trees and stepped directly in +her path. He was, as Nan knew the minute she heard his voice, the tall, +thin man with the straight line for a mouth, with whom she had had so +many unpleasant meetings before. His face showed a desperate expression. + +Nan did not scream, although much alarmed. She glanced over her shoulder +with a half-formed thought of escape, but the man sprang forward and +laid a rough hand on her arm. + +"None of that, my little lady," said the sneering voice. "You are not +going to get away from us this time until we get what we want. Just a +little document or two is all we want. Quick now--hand it over." + +"I--I haven't any document!" gasped Nan, adding with a little flare of +temper: "If you don't let go of my arm I--I'll scream." + +"Oh, no, you won't! Slicker, that's your job." + +Before Nan could move a soft, fat hand was pressed over her mouth from +behind and she twisted about to find that her second captor was the +short, fat man who had been the companion of her more dangerous enemy on +the boat. + +"Come, we're in a hurry," snapped the latter, and Nan's terrified eyes +came back to his. "Will you give 'em to us or do we have to take them?" + +Nan shook her head, and with a snort of impatience the man laid rough +hands upon her and began to search her clothing for the papers. Then, +finding nothing, he turned upon her in a towering rage. + +"You're a sly one," he growled between his teeth. "But let me tell you +this, you little imp----" + +"Easy, Jensen, easy," cautioned the fat man, whose hand still covered +Nan's mouth. + +"If we don't find those papers within the next forty-eight hours," +raged the other, not noticing his companion, "you will be mighty sorry. +Something is going to happen to you! Get me?" + +"You--you brute!" gasped Nan, as the fat man removed his hand from her +mouth. + +"It won't do you any good to call names, Miss. You get those papers for +us. And don't you dare to hand 'em to any of your friends either. If you +do--well, you'll be sorry. We are out for those papers, and we are bound +to have 'em." + +He pushed Nan from him with such force that she stumbled and fell full +length on the ground, where she lay, a bewildered heap of indignant +girlhood. + +For a moment the tall man looked at her with a cruel smile touching his +thin mouth. Then he took his companion by the arm and disappeared +through the trees. + +[Illustration: He pushed Nan from him with such force that she stumbled +and fell. (_See page 216_)] + + + + + CHAPTER XXVII + + WALTER TO THE RESCUE + + +A familiar shout roused Nan, and she sat up, pushing the hair back from +her face, and instinctively straightened her dress. She picked up her +hat, which had fallen off when she fell, and she pushed this down over +her soft hair as she stumbled to her feet. + +She answered the familiar hail, and in another moment she saw Walter +running toward her, looking very anxious and upset. But when the youth +saw her face he stood still, staring at her stupidly. + +"Why, Nan!" he cried, "what is it? You--why, you've been crying!" + +"W-with rage," said Nan, a sob rising in her throat. "It's those men, +Walter. They searched me! Oh, I'll never get over it--never!" + +This time she broke down completely and Walter ran to her, putting a +protecting arm about her, glancing about him at the same time as if he +hoped to see the men who had frightened her and wreak vengeance then and +there. + +"Searched you! Who?" he demanded; then, before she could speak, he +added as though answering his own question: "It was those men, Nan. You +told me. Where are they? Quick! Which way did they go?" + +But Nan only shook her head and clung to him a little as though she +found comfort in his being there. + +"You couldn't catch them--they have had too much of a start," she said. +Then, with a shudder of remembrance, she drew herself from Walter's +grasp and looked at him wildly. "Walter!" she cried. "There are all our +bags in the auto--Mrs. Bragley's papers--and those--those--beasts around +loose! Oh--oh----" Before she had finished she had started toward the +road on a run with Walter in close pursuit. + +They met the rest of the anxious party on the way, but nothing less than +an earthquake could have stopped Nan then. She waved to them and Walter +shouted something unintelligible as he raced past, and they had nothing +else to do but to follow the young lunatics--for that is what they +called them. + +When Mr. and Mrs. Mason and the girls arrived at the spot where they had +left their car they found Walter and Nan sitting on the running board +and Nan holding something in her hand which she waved wildly at them. + +"They're safe! They're safe!" she called, as Rhoda, Grace and Bess ran +up to her and then stopped short at the disheveled picture she made. + +"Why, Nan Sherwood!" began Bess, amazed, "what----" + +"Why, Nan, you've been crying!" exclaimed Rhoda, running forward and +putting a protecting arm about her friend. + +"You needn't remind me of it," said Nan with a hysterical little sob. "I +may start again." + +"But, Nan dear, something very dreadful must have happened to make you +cry so," said Mrs. Mason gravely. "We have been worried about you." + +Nan told them all about it, with little catches of her breath in +between, while her listeners grew more and more agitated and Bess wanted +to hire a dozen detectives immediately and give chase. + +"So they gave you forty-eight hours, did they?" asked Mr. Mason, his +mouth tightening in a grim line. "Well, I'll give them just twenty-four +hours before they land in jail. Come on, let us get back to the town. I +want to set some wheels in motion." + +"But let us look for the rascals ourselves first," pleaded Walter. "They +may not have run off as far as you think." + +"Well, it won't do any harm to take a look around," said Mr. Mason. + +He and his son went back into the orange grove and there spent the best +part of half an hour trying to get some trace of Nan's assailants. They +found some footprints and followed these, but presently the marks were +lost in crossing a brook. + +Some men working in the far end of the orange grove came up and wanted +to know what was the matter. + +"You ought to get some bloodhounds on their trail," said one when they +had told their story. "Nothing like them dogs to trail a man." + +"We haven't any bloodhounds and we haven't any time to get them," +replied Mr. Mason. + +"We might offer a reward for their capture," suggested Walter. + +"We'll do that--if the authorities cannot aid us," said his father. + +"Those rascals ought to be hung, Dad." + +"I wouldn't say hung, Walter. But they ought to be severely punished. I +fear they have scared Nan so she will not enjoy her visit to Florida." + +"You had better take those papers, Dad." + +"I think so myself. I can't understand why Nan kept them." + +"Oh, some of the other girls thought she'd be afraid to keep them, and +she wanted to show them that she wasn't afraid. But now I guess she had +better give them up." + +The search was continued for a while longer and then father and son +returned to the others. Then all set out for town. + +The girls plied Nan with questions on the way back, but she was too worn +out with her terrible experience to answer them. The reaction was upon +her, and all she wanted to do was crawl off in a corner somewhere and +think things out. + +They found the only hotel in Sunny Slopes, and, under Mr. Mason's expert +management, were soon comfortably installed in a suite of rooms on the +second floor. + +"You must rest a bit, Nan," said Mrs. Mason kindly. "If you don't you +may get sick." + +"Oh, I can't rest," declared the girl. + +Nevertheless, Mrs. Mason made her lie down, and presently Nan dropped +off into a troubled doze. In the meanwhile Mr. Mason, followed by +Walter, had raced off to interview the authorities. + +When Nan opened her eyes she found the other girls impatiently waiting +to speak to her. + +"Goodness! I thought you were going to sleep forever," said Bess, as she +saw with relief that Nan's eyes were open. Rhoda, who had been moving +around in the other room, came to the door and peeped in. + +"And here we've been waiting all this time to tell you the news," said +Grace plaintively. + +"News! What news?" asked Nan, still heavy with sleep. + +"Who do you suppose is here?" asked Bess, then went on eagerly without +waiting for an answer. "It's Linda, Nan. And she has Cora Courtney with +her. We met them in the hall just now." + +"I don't think Linda would have spoken to us, and I'm sure we weren't +going to," Grace took up the story, "but Cora stopped, and so Linda +really had to. I imagine they are none too friendly from the way they +acted to each other." + +"It's strange we haven't seen Cora but once before if she has been with +Linda all the time," Bess added excitedly, for this new development had +evidently quite driven Nan's trouble from her mind. "We've seen Linda +innumerable times." + +"Probably Linda has been making more of a lady's maid of Cora than +usual," said Nan, putting a hand to her forehead, which was beginning to +throb dully. "And lady's maids aren't very often seen with their +mistresses, you know." + +"But what I can't understand," said Rhoda thoughtfully from the doorway, +"is why they didn't stay at Palm Beach. I should like to know what they +are doing here." + +"Following me, probably," said Nan, sitting up in bed with a wry little +laugh. "People seem to be getting in the habit!" + +Nan dressed a little while after that and went downstairs for dinner, +although her head was still aching painfully. + +The attack in the orange grove and the rascals' threat to Nan had now +thoroughly aroused Mr. Mason, and he had been out all afternoon while +Nan slept, making inquiries and setting wheels in motion. + +For the short time he had been at work on the case he had made really +remarkable strides. He had found out first of all, through an attorney +in Sunny Slopes, that Mrs. Bragley's papers were perfectly legal and +that she owned a sixth interest in the orange grove, which was worth a +little over thirty thousand dollars. This gave the widow five thousand +dollars--a veritable fortune to the poor woman. + +"I'll write to her to-night," Nan declared, even forgetting the ache in +her head in her pleasure at the good news. "Mr. Mason, I think you are +wonderful!" + +"No, I'm not, my dear," Mr. Mason denied grimly. "If I had been I should +have landed those rascals who attacked you and that crooked Pacomb who +employed them in jail before to-night." + +"Pacomb!" repeated Nan breathlessly, while the others looked interested. +"Jacob Pacomb. Why, he's the man I told you about who sold the property +to Mrs. Bragley." + +"You said he was crooked, Dad," said Walter with interest. "How do you +know?" + +"I've made inquiries," said Mr. Mason significantly. "And I've found out +that people out here don't think very much of Mr. Jacob Pacomb and his +business methods. I haven't the slightest doubt in the world," he added +earnestly, "but what Pacomb has been behind all these attempts to get +the papers from you, Nan." + +"Can't you arrest him?" Grace asked breathlessly. "Of course you can!" + +"I can as soon as I prove that he's a thief," her father answered. + +Bess, Grace and Rhoda slept well that night, for they were tired out +with excitement, but Nan scarcely closed her eyes. Again and again the +incidents of the day came vividly back to her and she would start up +nervously at the slightest sound. + +When morning came she was white and big-eyed, and the girls were shocked +when they saw her. + +"For goodness' sake, Nan Sherwood," Bess scolded, all the time hovering +anxiously over her, "I always said that that old woman's horrible papers +would be the death of you, and from the way you look this morning I +guess I'm a good prophet. Here we come to Florida for a good time, and +look what we get!" + +"You do look all worn out, honey," said Rhoda, putting an arm about her +chum. "Come down on the porch for a little while in the sunshine. It +will do you good." + +"I'm all right," protested Nan. "I just have a little headache, that's +all." + +"And no wonder, after all those old papers have made you go through," +grumbled Bess, as she followed the girls out into the hall. "I'm only +surprised that we are not all dead by this time." + +"Now all that we need to make us completely happy," chuckled Nan, +recovering a little of her old spirits, "is to meet dear Linda. She +always has such a pleasant effect upon people." + +"Oh, we'll meet her all right, don't worry," said Bess gloomily. "She +always turns up when she is least wanted." + +After breakfast, Walter, shocked and worried as were all the rest over +Nan's appearance, suggested that he take her and the other girls, if +they wanted to go, for a little ride in the automobile. + +Bess refused on the ground that she had to write some letters, but the +other three said they would go. Mr. Mason had taken charge of Mrs. +Bragley's papers, so that there was that much less for Nan to worry +about. She was thankful for this, as she rather listlessly climbed into +the back seat with Grace and Rhoda. + +"Let's go, Walter," she said, as she sank back luxuriously into her +corner. "And I don't very much care if we never get back." + +Meanwhile, Bess was having an adventure all by herself. She went up to +her room after the girls left and dutifully wrote two letters, one to +her father and one to her mother. + +Then, having had enough of duty for the present, she yawned and +stretched and wondered when Walter and the girls were coming back--or +whether they intended to stay all day. + +Then an impish sprite of mischief whispered in her ear and her eyes +danced merrily. On that chance meeting with Cora and Linda in the hall +Cora had told her and Grace that they were staying in a suite of rooms +on the third floor, and had asked them to come to see her and Linda. + +And now, to while away the time till the girls' return, Bess proposed to +take advantage of Cora's invitation and call upon her--and Linda. + +She slipped along the hall, ran up the stairs to save waiting for the +elevator, and finally found the door, the number of which Cora had given +her some time before. + +She heard voices raised in altercation within, and paused before +knocking. Then she heard Nan's name spoken in Linda's unpleasant tones, +and, quite unintentionally, she stood a moment playing eavesdropper. + +"I tell you, she is a thief!" Linda was saying, in a voice that showed +she was in one of her frequent rages. "Nan Sherwood has been acting +funny ever since she came to Palm Beach, and that's why I've followed +her here to see what she is up to." + +"Well, I'll tell you one thing," Cora shot back, and Bess was curiously +reminded of the turning worm. "I don't believe Nan Sherwood is any +thief. I think she's a mighty nice girl. And every time I think of the +mean trick you played on her, and how you nearly wrecked the school as +well----" + +Bess drew in a sharp breath and immediately came to her senses. She +knocked loudly on the door, but the raised voices of the girls within +drowned the sound. + +Linda had turned on Cora in a fury. + +"You take that back," she shrilled. "If you dare tell anybody about my +wrecking that steam plant----" + +But Bess, unable to contain herself another moment, tried the knob, felt +the door yield, and burst in upon the astonished girls. + +"Oh!" she cried triumphantly, "I knew I couldn't be wrong! It was you, +Linda, after all!" + + + + + CHAPTER XXVIII + + CAUGHT + + +It was lucky for Bess that Linda's father happened in at that moment, +for Linda, in her rage at thus being found out, looked as though she +would like to tear her enemy limb from limb. + +As for Cora, she gave one horrified look at Bess, burst into tears, and +fled from the room. + +Mr. Riggs, who was not at all the pompous, conceited man that the girls +at Lakeview Hall had come to think him, looked after Cora for a moment +in surprise, then turned smilingly back to the two girls and asked Linda +to introduce him to her friend. + +For one electric moment it looked as though Linda were about to refuse. +Then what little common sense she had coming to her rescue, she sullenly +did as she was bid and Mr. Riggs began to ask a few casual questions of +Bess about how she liked Florida, if she had been there before, and +other questions, which Bess answered mechanically. Her eyes were upon +Linda as she stood at a window with her back to the room, her fingers +beating a nervous tattoo on the windowsill. + +At last Bess managed to break away and was starting toward the door when +she was surprised to find that Linda was following her. + +The girl stopped her at the door, and Bess thought she had never seen +any one as subdued and beaten as Linda looked at that moment. + +"Please, Bess," she begged, lowering her voice so that her father would +not hear, "don't tell on me! No one at Lakeview Hall knows that I--I did +that. And no one will unless you tell them. Please, Bess!" + +"N-no, I won't tell," said Bess hesitantly. "If was a horrible thing for +you to do, Linda, and Dr. Beulah ought to know. But I--I'm not a +tattle-tale." + +Then she fled down the hall, down the stairs, and into her room again. + +She told the story to the girls and Walter that night, and they listened +in amazement. + +"Well!" said Grace. "And to think that Cora would be the one to give +Linda away." + +"I don't know about promising not to tell Doctor Beulah," said Nan +thoughtfully. "It seems to me she ought to know----" + +"Well, you tell her then," suggested Rhoda. + +"Oh, I couldn't!" Nan flashed back indignantly, and Rhoda laughed at +her. + +"You see!" she said. + +"Well," sighed Grace, "it's of no use to worry about it now, anyway. We +can't do a thing till we get back to Lakeview Hall." + +When Mr. Mason came in that night they questioned him eagerly, but he +had no real news to tell them. He had been able to prove nothing +definite against Jacob Pacomb, and as yet had found no trace of the men +who had so frightened Nan. + +And Nan, away down in her heart, was still frightened, there could be no +doubt of that. The man had threatened her, had given her forty-eight +hours to turn over the papers, and more than twenty-four hours of that +time had already passed! If they did not succeed in tracing the +scoundrels and handing them over to justice in the next twenty-four +hours, what might not happen! + +Both Rhoda and Grace shared her uneasiness, and lazy Bess grumbled +mightily at the loss of sleep consequent upon it. There is no doubt but +what the girls would have rested a great deal easier that night had they +known that a house detective, well paid for his services, kept watch +outside Nan's door till dawn crept in at the windows. + +"I wish both of the men were in Greenland," grumbled Bess. + +"Yes, and without anything to eat or drink and freezing to death," added +Rhoda. + +"I can't understand why the authorities can't catch them," put in Grace. +"They have a very good description of them." + +"Maybe they have left Florida," said Nan. + +"Oh, if only they have," cried Bess. "But I am afraid there is no such +luck." + +It was a weary-eyed quartette of girls that made its way down to the +dining-room that morning, and breakfast was eaten in gloomy silence. + +Walter eyed the girls with a mixture of humor and sympathy, and once he +turned to his father with a grin. + +"I say, Dad," he chuckled, "if something isn't done to-day about this +business, I'm afraid the girls will be dead by night. They look half +gone already." + +After breakfast they wandered into the lobby of the hotel to see if +there was any mail for them. Nan had not heard from Papa Sherwood or +Momsey for almost a week, and she was beginning to feel neglected +indeed. If only she could have them with her now, to advise and help her +in this predicament! + +"Here's a letter for you, Nan," Grace interrupted her rather unhappy +thoughts. "And here's another, with a Lakeview postmark. Must be from +one of the girls at school. One for you, too, Rhoda. Looks like +Procrastination's handwriting." + +Just then Bess made a funny little sound, half gasp and half +exclamation, and they turned to her. Bess's face was white and her hand +shook as she grasped Nan's arm. + +"Look at those men!" she whispered, and though it was only a whisper it +went through Nan like a knife. "Over there--crossing the lobby! Nan! Oh, +what are you doing? Don't, Nan, he may shoot you! Nan!" + +But Nan was already running across the lobby, unmindful of staring eyes, +all her fear turned to anger at these men who dared appear in public +after the cowardly attack they had made upon her. She darted in front of +them and blocked their way, her eyes blazing and her body tense. + +The short, fat man started at sight of her and drew back. But black rage +darkened his companion's face and he made a gesture as though to push +Nan out of the way. He might have done it, too, and made his escape +easily, for the curious people who had gathered in the lobby seemed +paralyzed with amazement, had not Rhoda suddenly appeared at her chum's +side, a little flame of white-hot indignation. + +"Don't dare touch her!" she cried fiercely. "You've done +enough--you--you----" + +"Here, here, what's this?" asked an authoritative voice, and a big burly +man, an assistant manager of the hotel, pushed his way through the +gathering crowd. + +"These girls are crazy," cried the tall man, turning furiously upon the +newcomer, while his fat companion took out an immense silk handkerchief +and nervously wiped his forehead. "If you don't get them out of the way +and lock them up, I'll sue your place----" + +"Officer, arrest those men!" + +Clear and startling, the voice rang out above the confusion, and the two +men, without waiting to see who their new enemy was, made a dash for the +open door, which was still only defended by Nan and Rhoda. + +But the hotel man was quicker than they. He sprang before them and +pushed them back into the crowd, which opened to admit them and closed +around them again, making escape utterly impossible. + +For a moment, Nan and Rhoda, left outside of the circle around the men, +could see nothing of what happened. But presently Mr. Mason--it was he +who, coming suddenly upon the scene in the lobby, had demanded the +arrest of the men--pushed his way through the crowd and beckoned to Nan. +She went with him, and Rhoda followed close behind. Grace and Bess had +already pushed their way into the crowd. + +The house detective, who had been in consultation with Mr. Mason when +the thing happened, had taken the two men into custody. The tall, thin +scoundrel, who had appeared in Nan's dreams for many restless nights, +stood there sullenly, glowering around fiercely at the curious faces +while his companion used his handkerchief more vehemently and seemed to +be growing more nervous with every minute that passed. + +"Can you swear that these are the men who attacked you in an orange +grove near here yesterday and demanded of you certain papers which were +not in your possession?" the detective gravely asked of Nan. + +"Yes, sir," answered the girl eagerly. Walter had slipped up beside her +and was holding her hand in a comforting grip, but she did not know it. + +"Can you also testify that they have attempted to obtain possession of +these papers at various other occasions during the last two or three +weeks?" the man went on, and this time Nan only nodded. + +"Well," said the detective, turning grimly to his prisoners, while the +crowd, not having the slightest idea what the commotion was about, but +with a keen love of the dramatic, edged closer, "I reckon the little +lady's testimony is sufficient to send you two up for quite a little +vacation." + +"Wait a minute, officer," whined the fat man, in spite of his +companion's attempt to stop him. "You want Jacob Pacomb. He's the man +who got us into this mess." + +"So you've turned stool pigeon, too, as well as crook?" drawled the +detective, while Nan and Mr. Mason exchanged a triumphant look. "Yes, I +reckon we do want Jacob Pacomb, too. We've been wanting him for a long +while. But since this is the first chance we've had to get the goods on +him, we won't waste any time doing it. Will one of you gentlemen call up +the police station?" + +Mr. Mason nodded, and the crowd opened to make way for him. + +But at the mention of the police station, the fat man broke down +completely and, evidently nursing some false hope that by telling all he +knew he might get off easy himself, he babbled unceasingly until the +police patrol drew up before the door. His companion stood off by +himself, with apparently no interest whatever in the proceedings. + +"Fine," said the detective, rising and patting the short man on the back +as two policemen made their way into the lobby and saluted him. "Now you +can tell the rest of your story to the judge. Will you come with us, +sir?" he asked, turning to Mr. Mason as the policeman took the men in +charge. "We may need your testimony to round up Jacob Pacomb." + +Mr. Mason nodded, but paused for a moment on his way to the door to +speak to Nan. + +"Everything's fine," he said, beaming down upon her. "We'll get this +Pacomb where we want him, and then your troubles--and Mrs. +Bragley's--will be over, Nan. Tell you all about it when I get back." + +Nan smiled back at him, and then as the crowd, its curiosity satisfied, +began to disperse, she sank down into one of the comfortable chairs and +looked weakly up at her excited chums. Then for the first time she +noticed Walter--and the fact that he was holding her hand. + +"Where did you get it?" she asked. + +"What?" + +"My hand?" + +Walter chuckled and answered slyly: + +"I took it when you weren't looking." + +She smiled at him weakly--but it was rather a satisfying smile. + + + + + CHAPTER XXIX + + "WHEN THE SPIRIT MOVES" + + +"Oh, I'm so excited," said Grace, looking from Walter to Nan. "Just +think, Nan! Everything happened just like a story." + +"Well, I must say," said Bess emphatically, "that for my part I'm glad +it's over. I may be able to sleep to-night without expecting to be +stabbed in the back." + +"Goodness! they weren't after you," said Nan practically. "I was +the--the----" she paused for a word and Walter obligingly supplied it. + +"Goat?" he asked. + +"Goat," she agreed with a smile. + +"Oh, but you were wonderful, Nan," said Grace worshipfully. "I never +would have had the courage to face those men the way you did." + +"But if it hadn't been for Rhoda, they might have got away even then," +said Nan generously, and Rhoda flushed with pleasure. + +"I'm glad if I helped at all," the girl from Rose Ranch said modestly. + +It was not till the girls were alone in their room that they remembered +the unopened morning mail. Nan had been holding her letters tight in her +hand through all the excitement. They opened them without much interest, +for even letters could hardly hope to compete with the excitement of +this morning. + +One of Nan's letters was from Momsey, and she put it away with a tender +smile, for she always saved the best till the last. Then she opened the +other letter, which was from Laura Polk, and immediately her +indifference changed to interest. + +In the letter, which Nan read aloud, Laura recounted excitedly to Nan +how Dr. Prescott had found that Linda was responsible for the wrecking +of the steam plant and that Linda's father would undoubtedly be asked to +pay the bill for repairs. + +"Does she say how they found out?" questioned Bess quickly. + +"One of the servants saw Linda down there with some rope. She was taken +sick and went home for a while, and did not know anything about the +trouble at the school. But she is well now and ready to go back to her +work, and in talking to Doctor Beulah the story came out." + +"I'm mighty glad Doctor Beulah knows," said Bess. "I don't suppose any +of us could have told on Linda, but she deserved to be found out--the +horrid thing." + +"I don't suppose Linda can help her disposition," said Grace mildly. "I +heard mother say once that she was her own worst enemy." + +"I suppose she is," said Rhoda skeptically. "But that doesn't make us +like her any better!" + +Then Nan put down Laura's letter and turned to Momsey's. It was a long, +long letter, and she read it over twice. + +"Dear Momsey!" she murmured to herself. "How much I will have to tell +you when I see you again!" + +A few hours later Mr. Mason came back with the news that Jacob Pacomb +had been arrested for the crooked swindler that he was. + +It seemed that at the time he had sold the property to Mrs. Bragley's +husband, Pacomb had made five other grants, and, now that the property +had proved more valuable than he had hoped for, he was trying underhand +means to recover it. + +The men who had made life miserable for Nan for the last few weeks and +had almost wrecked Bess's temper and who were now gracing twin cells in +prison, were simply agents of Pacomb's. + +"So now everything is settled happily," Mr. Mason finished. "We can go +back to Palm Beach whenever the spirit moves us." + +The spirit did not move them for several days, however, for Sunny Slopes +was a pretty place and the surrounding country beautiful. Also Nan had +telegraphed the joyful news to Mrs. Bragley and, since she had given +the address of the hotel where they were staying, she was eager to +receive a letter in answer from the widow before they went back to the +Royal Poinciana. + +"Although I do hope she writes soon," she had confided to Walter. "For I +am really getting homesick for Palm Beach again." + +The girls went to see Linda the day after Nan received Laura's letter, +but found that she and Cora had left without leaving word of any kind +for any of them. + +"Poor Cora!" Bess said, as they made their way down to the street. "I +guess she hasn't had any easy time of it since she let the cat out of +the bag to me about Linda." + +At last the expected letter came from Mrs. Bragley, and the girls +gathered around Nan eagerly as she read it aloud. One had only to read +the first line to tell that the old woman was overjoyed at her good +fortune. The letter fairly overflowed with gratitude to Nan for what she +had done. + + "It has lifted a weight from my shoulders, my dear, such as you + will never know," the letter finished. "At least I hope and pray + that you may not. And if the time ever comes when you need help, + don't be afraid to come to a lonely old woman, who will be proud + and happy to pay back a little of the debt she owes you." + +"That's worth every disagreeable thing we went through, isn't it, +girls?" Nan asked, looking up at them with shining eyes. "Isn't it +wonderful to be able to make somebody just a little bit happier because +they have met you?" + +"Maybe that's why we are all so happy," said Bess gaily, flinging her +arms about her chum. "Because we have you, Nan Sherwood." + +"Now with Nan's villains and Linda off our minds," drawled Rhoda, +sinking lazily down into the depths of a big chair, "we ought to be able +to enjoy ourselves." + +"Will we!" cried Grace softly. "Just you watch us!" + +The next morning they started back for Palm Beach. Walter asked Nan to +ride with him, and she surprised herself as much as him by accepting the +invitation. + +She was feeling joyously care-free and venturesome this morning, and it +was wonderful to be beside Walter in the car with the sweet wind rushing +by and the country unfolding in tropical luxuriance at every turn. + +"Oh, Walter, aren't you glad you're alive?" she asked of the youth at +her side. + +Walter's eyes were happy as he turned to her. + +"You said it," he answered fervently. + +Just then Bess, in the car ahead, looked back at them. Was it only Nan's +imagination again or did the look seem to say, more plainly than any +words could have done: + +"Nan Sherwood, what did I tell you?" + +But Nan just then did not care what Bess thought. She was very happy and +that being so she meant to enjoy herself thoroughly during the remainder +of her stay in Florida. + +And now, with many good times still in store for them at Palm Beach, we +will say good-bye to Nan Sherwood and her chums. + + THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Nan Sherwood at Palm Beach, by Annie Roe Carr + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NAN SHERWOOD AT PALM BEACH *** + +***** This file should be named 24683.txt or 24683.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24683/ + +Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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